Looks like there is HOPE for CHANGE on the Washington scene....

Nancy & Rahmbo enjoying the moment!

It appears that a bunch of bored British blokes ....

..... want to try another end run toward creating a 'world gob'mint'! This time using environmental issues instead of the sea treaties and such...... these folks never give up!!

Lawyers call for international court for the environment
A former chairman of the Bar Council is calling for an international court for the environment to punish states that fail to protect wildlife and prevent climate change.

By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent
28 Nov 2008

Stephen Hockman QC is proposing a body similar to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to be the supreme legal authority on issues regarding the environment.

The first role of the new body would be to enforce international agreements on cutting greenhouse gas emissions set to be agreed next year.

But the court would also fine countries or companies that fail to protect endangered species or degrade the natural environment and enforce the "right to a healthy environment".

The innovative idea is being presented to an audience of politicians, scientists and public figures for the first time at a symposium at the British Library.

Mr Hockman, a deputy High Court judge, said that the threat of climate change means it is more important than ever for the law to protect the environment.

The UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland this month is set to begin negotiations that will lead to a new agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol in Copenhagen next year. Developed countries are expected to commit to cutting emissions drastically, while developing countries agree to halt deforestation.

Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, has agreed the concept of an international court will be taken into account when considering how to make these international agreements on climate change binding. The court is also backed by a number of MPs, climate change experts and public figures including the actress Judi Dench.

Mr Hockman said an international court will be needed to enforce and regulate any agreement.

"The time is now ripe to set this up and get it going," he said. "Its remit will be overall climate change and the need for better regulation of carbon emissions but at the same time the implementation and enforcement of international environmental agreements and instruments."

As well as providing resolution between states, the court will also be useful for multinational businesses in ensuring environmental laws are kept to in every country.

The court would include a convention on the right to a healthy environment and provide a higher body for individuals or non-governmental organisations to protest against an environmental injustice.

Mr Hockman said the court may be able to fine businesses or states but its main role will be in making "declaratory rulings" that influence and embarrass countries into upholding the law.

He said: "Of course regulations and sanctions alone cannot deliver a global solution to problems of climate change, but without such components the incentive for individual countries to address those problems – and to achieve solutions that are politically acceptable within their own jurisdictions – will be much reduced."

The court would be led by retired judges, climate change experts and public figures. It would include a scientific body to consider evidence and provide access to any data on the environment.

Most importantly, Mr Hockman said an international court on the environment would influence public opinion which in turn would force Governments to take the environment seriously. He said: "If there are bodies around that can give definitive legal rulings that are accepted as fair and reasonable that has its own impact on public opinion."

Friends of the Earth welcomed the idea.

A spokesman said: "We think any institution that is going to promote and help people enforce their right to a clean and healthy environment is a good thing."

These bloody people can't run their own countries properly, they lost their empires, they ceded their independence to the Euro's in Brussels, they are mired in unchecked immigration, and they propose to sit in judgement on the rest of the world on all things environmental? Lord luv a duck!!

'O's Strange choice....

Supposing you were a young, semi-black Senator who just got elected to the office of President of the United States and was searching for a Secretary of State in these troubled times.

Now, supposing you owed your victory in large part to a semi-hispanic, sitting popular governor who's early endorsement and efforts helped convince over two-thirds of the nation's Hispanic voters to vote for you and brought in at least four battle ground states. And who's appointment to Secretary of State would be the highest ever achieved by a Hispanic-American and viewed positively across the land.

Add to this scenario the facts that this bi-lingual Governor's resume includes service in Congress, as special envoy to North Korea, Iraq, Cuba, the Sudan and as Ambassador to the United Nations.

Now then, suppose the other choice was your primary campaign opponent, who's lack of foreign experience you have been hammering at for the last year. Posited as: "serving tea & cookies at international events while first lady". And who's second language (according to the best secret service sources) is limited to four letter or four syllable words and epithets.

So there's your choice -- Bill Richardson or Hellary Clinton! Whom would you vet for the position? Political experience or political soap opera?

We have "Truth in Lending Laws", why not a "Truth in Politics Law"?

Obama team repackaging Clinton after campaign digs
AP News
November 29, 2008

It wasn't too long ago that Barack Obama and his advisers were tripping over one another to tear down Hillary Rodham Clinton's foreign policy credentials. She was dismissed as a commander in chief wanna-be who did little more than sip tea and make small talk with foreign leaders during her days as first lady.

"What exactly is this foreign policy experience?" Obama said mockingly of the New York senator. "Was she negotiating treaties? Was she handling crises? The answer is no."

That was in March, when Clinton was Obama's sole remaining rival for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Now, Clinton is on track to become Obama's secretary of state.

And, unsurprisingly, the sniping at her foreign policy credentials is a thing of the past.

Obama adviser William Daley over the weekend said Clinton would be "a tremendous addition to this administration. Tremendous."

Senior adviser David Axelrod called Clinton a "demonstrably able, tough, brilliant person."

Last spring, though, Clinton was targeted with a steady stream of criticism via conference call, e-mail and campaign-trail digs from the Obama camp, all aimed at shredding her self-portrait as an experienced and confident leader on the international stage. Some of those doing the sniping will be taking up key positions _ most likely along with Clinton _ in the new Obama administration.

Greg Craig, selected to serve as White House counsel in the Obama administration, delivered a withering attack during the primaries on Clinton's claims that she could rightfully share in the credit for some of the foreign policy successes of her husband's presidency.

"She did not sit in on any National Security Council meetings when she was first lady," Craig insisted in one conference call. He went on to knock down Clinton's claims to influence in the Northern Ireland peace process, opening borders for refugees during the war in Kosovo, and making a dangerous visit to Bosnia.

"There is no reason to believe ... that she was a key player in foreign policy at any time during the Clinton administration," Craig wrote in a campaign memo.

Susan Rice, an Obama adviser who could land a spot in the new administration, mocked the idea that Clinton could lay claim to foreign policy credentials by marriage.

"There is no crisis to be dealt with or managed when you are first lady," Rice sniffed last March. "You don't get that kind of experience by being married to a commander in chief."

Clinton was only too happy to make light of Obama's own foreign policy credentials, suggesting his biggest selling point was a 2002 speech against going to war with Iraq. "Many people gave speeches against the war then," she said in a February debate.

Robert Gelbard, an adviser to the Obama campaign on foreign policy who worked in the Clinton administration, said in March that Clinton had more involvement in foreign policy than a lot of first ladies, but added that "her role was limited and I've been surprised at the claims that she had a much greater role."

Well, never mind about all of that now.

"That was then; this is now," said David Gergen, who has served as an adviser to both Republican and Democratic presidents. "Campaigns are ever thus."

"Generally speaking," Gergen said, "there is a recognition that campaigns bring a certain amount of hyperbole, and when it's over you try to find the most talented people you can find to work with you."

Clinton may not have been at the table when her husband made the big decisions, Gergen said, but "she's been imbibing questions on foreign policy and decision-making since 1992."

A spokesperson for the Obama transition team declined to comment on the shift in tone.

It also should be said that some of the wounds to Clinton's foreign policy credentials during the primaries were self-inflicted, most famously her inflated account of the drama associated with a visit she made to Bosnia.

"I remember landing under sniper fire," she recounted in a speech. "There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."

Soon enough, video footage surfaced of Clinton's unremarkable airport arrival ceremony, where she was welcomed by dignitaries and posed for photos with children.

Clinton brought up the Bosnia trip to counter Obama's suggestion that her experiences as first lady amounted to having tea at an ambassador's house.

"I don't remember anyone offering me tea," she said of the Bosnia visit.

Clinton, in an April debate, blamed her Bosnia gaffe on campaign fatigue. But she did not back away from her claim to broad foreign policy experience as first lady.

"I was not as accurate as I have been in the past," she said. "But I know, too, that being able to rely on my experience of having gone to Bosnia, gone to more than 80 countries, having represented the United States in so many different settings, gives me a tremendous advantage going into this campaign."

Well, maybe not in the campaign, as it turned out.

But maybe, just perhaps, as secretary of state.

Everybody's getting into the act...........

Why Johnny doesn't learn. How many ways must it be said?

DC'S ROTTEN SCHOOLS
By JONAH GOLDBERG
November 28, 2008 --
HYPOCRISY is an over blown sin. Better to be a hypocrite who occasionally violates his principles than a villain who never does.

I bring this up because the usual round of conservative complaints about Barack Obama's public-schools hypocrisy has begun, and I'm finding it all a bit tedious.

The Obamas will send their two daughters to the expensive private school Sidwell Friends. Yes, that makes him something of a hypocrite because he is a vocal opponent of giving poor kids anything like the same option.

But who cares? Personally, I'd think less of the Obamas if they sent their kids to bad schools out of some ideological principle. Parents' first obligation is to do right by their own kids.

In Washington, we have these arguments every time a rich Democrat sends his kids to private schools, which is very often. The real issue is why the public schools are unacceptable to pretty much anyone, liberal or conservative, who has other options.

Maybe in the rich suburbs of New York or Los Angeles, wealthy opponents of school choice run less risk of being labeled hypocrites; they can skip the pricey private schools because their public campuses aren't hellholes.

But most DC public schools are hellholes. So DC parents - including the first family - find hypocrisy a small price to pay for fulfilling their parental obligations.

Data compiled by The Washington Post in 2007 of the 100 largest school districts in the country ranked DC third in spending for each student, around $13,000 a pupil, but last in spending on instruction. More than half of every dollar of education spending goes to the salaries of administrators. Test scores are abysmal; the campuses are often unsafe.

In her 17 months on the job, heroic DC schools chancellor Michelle Rhee has already made meaningful improvements. But that's grading on an enormous curve.

The Post recently reported that on observing a bad teacher in a classroom, Rhee complained to the principal. "Would you put your grandchild in that class?" she asked.

"If that's the standard," replied the defensive principal, "we don't have any effective teachers in my school."

If Obama and other politicians don't want to send their kids to schools where even the principals have such views, that's no scandal. The scandal is that these politicians tolerate such awful schools at all. For anyone.

The main reason politicians adopt a policy of malign neglect: teachers unions, arguably the single worst mainstream institution in our country today. No group has a stronger or better-organized stranglehold on a political party than they do. No group is more committed to putting ideological blather and self-interest before the public good.

Rhee has been pushing a new contract that would provide merit pay to successful teachers. The system is voluntary: Each teacher can stay in the current system that rewards mere seniority, or opt to join a parallel system that pays for superior performance. Many talented teachers would love the opportunity.

Alas, the national teachers unions insist that linking pay to results is an outrageous attack on the integrity of public schools. They have insisted that DC teachers not even be allowed to vote on the contract.

Democrats tolerate this sort of thing because public-school teachers continue to be reliably liberal voters. And their unions cut big checks.

Obama bragged about being different during his campaign. He declared himself independent from teachers unions and boasted of his support for Rhee. But his recent appointment of Stanford professor (and teachers-union apologist) Linda Darling-Hammond to head his education transition team is seen by many as a sign that reformers like Rhee can expect little support from the new White House.

And where are the Republicans? Well, if you want a good example of why hypocrisy isn't the worst thing in the world, just look at the GOP. Because the party supports school-choice vouchers, it's simply out of the debate.

School choice has much to recommend it. But it's no silver bullet, and vouchers will never gain full acceptance in rich suburbs.

School choice does immunize Republicans from the charge of hypocrisy, however. So rich Republicans can send their kids to ritzy private schools without fear of violating their principles. Unfortunately, their principled insulation also makes them largely irrelevant to a debate in which people like Rhee could use all the help they can get.

Here is a REAL Thanksgiving story........!

Woman's Craigslist offer ensures plenty at table

Associated Press - November 26, 2008 10:24 AM ET

LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) - This time last year, Monique White was living in a motel and looking for work, wishing for the bustling Thanksgivings of her childhood.

This year, White's holiday wish will be fulfilled -- thanks to an impromptu Craigslist posting.
The 36-year-old posted a two-sentence invite on the Internet classifieds site last week. The receptionist at a dentist's office was feeling a little lonely, her two sons spending the holiday with their dad, so she figured maybe four or five strangers would reply and join her and longtime partner Doug White for Thanksgiving dinner.

Instead, 32 people are headed to their Littleton townhouse. They're busy preparing nine turkeys, four hams, 16 boxes of stuffing and a dozen or so pies.

The Whites say they've been blessed.

They're both working and have bought a home. They say the dinner is their way of giving thanks for their changed lives.

Annie kicks us taxpayers in the 'attention getter'!

TERRORISTS' RESTLESS LEG SYNDROME
by Ann Coulter
November 26, 2008

I thought the rest of the world was going to love us if we elected B. Hussein Obama! Somebody better tell the Indian Muslims.

As everyone but President-elect B. Hussein Obama's base knows, many of the Guantanamo detainees cannot be sent to their home countries, cannot be released and cannot be tried. They need to be held in some form of extra-legal limbo the rest of their lives, sort of like Phil Spector.

And now they're Obama's problem.

If Obama wants his detention of Islamic terrorists to be dramatically different from Bush's Guantanamo, my suggestion is that he cut off -- so to speak -- the expensive prosthetic limb procedures now being granted the detained terrorists.

Far from being sodomized and tortured by U.S. forces -- as Obama's base has wailed for the past seven years -- the innocent scholars and philanthropists being held at Guantanamo have been given expensive, high-tech medical procedures at taxpayer expense. If we're not careful, multitudes of Muslims will be going to fight Americans in Afghanistan just so they can go to Guantanamo and get proper treatment for attention deficit disorder and erectile dysfunction.

After being captured fighting with Taliban forces against Americans in 2001, Abdullah Massoud was sent to Guantanamo, where the one-legged terrorist was fitted with a special prosthetic leg, at a cost of $50,000-$75,000 to the U.S. taxpayer. Under the Americans With Disabilities Act, Massoud would now be able to park his car bomb in a handicapped parking space!

No, you didn't read that wrong, because the VA won't pay for your new glasses. I said $75,000. I would have gone with hanging at sunrise, but what do I know?

Upon his release in March 2004, Massoud hippity-hopped back to Afghanistan and quickly resumed his war against the U.S. Aided by his new artificial leg, just months later, in October 2004, Massoud masterminded the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers in Pakistan working on the Gomal Zam Dam project.

This proved, to me at least, that people with disabilities can do anything they put their minds to. Way to go, you plucky extremist!

Massoud said he had nothing against the Chinese but wanted to embarrass Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf for cooperating with the Americans. You know, the Americans who had just footed -- you should pardon the expression -- a $75,000 bill for his prosthetic leg.

Pakistani forces stormed Massoud's hideout, killing all the kidnappers, including Massoud. Only one of the Chinese engineers was rescued alive.

As a result of the kidnapping, the Chinese pulled all 100 engineers and dam workers out of Pakistan, and work on the dam ceased. This was bad news for the people of Pakistan -- but good news for the endangered Pakistani snail darter!

In none of the news accounts I read of Massoud's return to jihad after his release from Guantanamo is there any mention of the fact that his prosthetic leg was acquired in Guantanamo, courtesy of American taxpayers after he was captured trying to kill Americans on the battlefield in Afghanistan.

News about the prosthetic leg might interfere with stories of the innocent aid workers being held captive at Guantanamo in George Bush's AmeriKKKa.

To the contrary, although Massoud's swashbuckling reputation as a jihadist with a prosthetic leg appears in many news items, where he got that leg is almost purposely hidden -- even lied about.

"Abdullah Massoud ... had earned both sympathy and reverence for his time in Guantanamo Bay. ... Upon his release, he made it home to Waziristan and resumed his war against the U.S. With his long hair, his prosthetic limb and impassioned speeches, he quickly became a charismatic inspiration to Waziristan's youth." -- The New York Times

He's not a one-legged terrorist -- he's a freedom fighter living with a disability. I think we could all learn something about courage from this man.

"He lost his leg in a landmine explosion a few days before the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in September 1996. It didn't dampen his enthusiasm as a fighter and (BEGIN ITALS)he got himself an artificial leg later, says Yusufzai."(END ITALS) -- The Indo-Asian News Service

Where? At COSTCO?

"The 29-year-old Massoud, who lost his left leg in a landmine explosion while fighting alongside the Taliban, often used to ride a horse or camel because his disability made it painful for him to walk long distances in hilly areas." -- BBC Monitoring South Asia

Side-saddle, I'm guessing. And you just know those caves along the Afghan-Pakistan border aren't wheelchair accessible.

"He was educated in Peshawar and was treated in Karachi after his left leg was blown up in a landmine explosion in the Wreshmin Tangi gorge near Kabul in September 1996. He now walks with an artificial leg specifically made for him in Karachi." -- Gulf News (United Arab Emirates)

Karachi? Hey, how do I get into this guy's HMO?

They can't lick leprosy in Karachi, but the Gulf News tells us Massoud got his artificial leg at one of their specialty hospitals.

Anyone who thinks the Guantanamo detainees can be released without consequence doesn't have a leg to stand on.

Have you ever listened to and understood the words....

....of our National Anthem. Thanksgiving Day seems an appropriate day to take five minutes and reflect on the Thanks we owe to our American ancestors for their bravery and courage during this Nation's troubled early years..........

This is the American Flag with just 15 Stars that flew over Fort McHenry in 1814.


Unless you know all four stanzas of the Star Spangled Banner you may find this most interesting. Perhaps most of you didn't realize what Francis Scott Key's profession was or what he was doing on a ship. This is a good brush-up on your history.

(Note- Near the end of his life, the great science fiction author Isaac Asimov wrote a short story about the four stanzas of our national anthem. However brief, this well-circulated piece is an eye opener from the dearly departed doctor......)" I have a weakness -- I am crazy, absolutely nuts, about our national anthem. The words are difficult and the tune is almost impossible, but frequently when I'm taking a shower I sing it with as much power and emotion as I can. It shakes me up every time."

*******************************************************************

NO REFUGE COULD SAVE: BY DR. ISAAC ASIMOV

I was once asked to speak at a luncheon. Taking my life in my hands, I announced I was going to sing our national anthem -- all four stanzas. This was greeted with loud groans. One man closed the door to the kitchen, where the noise of dishes and cutlery was loud and distracting. "Thanks, Herb," I said.

"That's all right," he said. "It was at the request of the kitchen staff".

I explained the background of the anthem and then sang all four stanzas. Let me tell you, those people had never heard it before -- or had never really listened. I got a standing ovation. But it was not me; it was the anthem.

More recently, while conducting a seminar, I told my students the story of the anthem and sang all four stanzas. Again there was a wild ovation and prolonged applause. And again, it was the anthem and not me.

So now let me tell you how it came to be written.

In 1812, the United States went to war with Great Britain , primarily over freedom of the seas. We were in the right. For two years, we held off the British, even though we were still a rather weak country. Great Britain was in a life and death struggle with Napoleon. In fact, just as the United States declared war, Napoleon marched off to invade Russia . If he won, as everyone expected, he would control Europe, and Great Britain would be isolated. It was no time for her to be involved in an American war.

At first, our seamen proved better than the British. After we won a battle on Lake Erie in 1813, the American commander, Oliver Hazard Perry, sent the message, "We have met the enemy and they are ours." However, the weight of the British navy beat down our ships eventually. New England , hard-hit by a tightening blockade, threatened secession.

Meanwhile, Napoleon was beaten in Russia and in 1814 was forced to abdicate. Great Britain now turned its attention to the United States, launching a three-pronged attack.

The Northern prong was to come down Lake Champlain toward New York and seize parts of New England .

The Southern prong was to go up the Mississippi, take New Orleans and paralyze the west.

The Central prong was to head for the mid-Atlantic states and then attack Baltimore, the greatest port south of New York. If Baltimore was taken, the nation, which still hugged the Atlantic coast, could be split in two. The fate of the United States, then, rested to a large extent on the success or failure of the central prong.

The British reached the American coast, and on August 24, 1814, took Washington, D.C. Then they moved up the Chesapeake Bay toward Baltimore. On September 12, they arrived and found 1,000 men in Fort McHenry , whose guns controlled the harbor. If the British wished to take Baltimore, they would have to take the fort.

On one of the British ships was an aged physician, William Beanes, who had been arrested in Maryland and brought along as a prisoner. Francis Scott Key, a lawyer and friend of the physician, had come to the ship to negotiate his release.

The British captain was willing, but the two Americans would have to wait. It was now the night of September 13, and the bombardment of Fort McHenry was about to start.

As twilight deepened, Key and Beanes saw the American flag flying over Fort McHenry. Through the night, they heard bombs bursting and saw the red glare of rockets. They knew the fort was resisting and the American flag was still flying. But toward morning the bombardment ceased, and a dread silence fell. Either Fort McHenry had surrendered and the British flag flew above it, or the bombardment had failed and the American flag still flew.

As dawn began to brighten the eastern sky, Key and Beanes stared out at the fort, trying to see which flag flew over it. He and the physician must have asked each other over and over, "Can you see the flag?"

After it was all finished, Key wrote a four stanza poem telling the events of the night. Called "The Defense of Fort McHenry," it was published in newspapers and swept the nation. Someone noted that the words fit an old English tune called, "To Anacreon in Heaven" -- a difficult melody with an uncomfortably large vocal range. For obvious reasons, Key's work became known as "The Star Spangled Banner," and in 1931 Congress declared it the official anthem of the United States.

Now that you know the story, here are the words. Presumably, the old doctor is speaking. This is what he asks Key:

Oh! say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
Oh! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

("Ramparts," in case you don't know, are the protective walls or other elevations that surround a fort.) The first stanza asks a question. The second gives an answer:

On the shore, dimly seen thro' the mist of the deep
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep.
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream
'Tis the star-spangled banner. Oh! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

"The towering steep" is again, the ramparts. The bombardment has failed, and the British can do nothing more but sail away, their mission a failure. In the third stanza I feel Key allows himself to gloat over the American triumph. In the aftermath of the bombardment, Key probably was in no mood to act otherwise? During World War I when the British were our Staunchest allies, this third stanza was not sung. However, I know it, so here it is:

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

(The fourth stanza, a pious hope for the future, should be sung more slowly than the other three and with even deeper feeling):

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation,
Blest with victory and peace, may the Heaven - rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause is just,
And this be our motto --"In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

*****************************************************************

I hope you will look at the national anthem with new eyes. Listen to it, the next time you have a chance, with new ears. Pay attention to the words and don't let them ever take it away ... not even one word of it.

and IT'S SUNG IN ENGLISH!

Is Obamanation still just voting present?

... and merely calling it in for Georgia Dem Senate hopeful? From Politico.com:

Georgia on the Democrats' mind
By: Josh Kraushaar
November 25, 2008 02:57 PM EST

ATLANTA — Here on the central front in the battle to capture a 60-seat, filibuster-resistant Democratic Senate majority, only one thing matters anymore—turning out the party faithful.

Since Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss failed to break the 50 percent threshold necessary to win the seat outright on November 4, the contest has narrowed into a sprint in which both parties recognize there is only one path to victory, and that is mobilizing the base to vote in the Dec. 2 runoff.

That’s why on a cold Saturday morning, close to three weeks after Election Day, the suburban campaign headquarters of Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss is still buzzing with activity.

Roughly three dozen volunteers have arrived here, some of whom will grab cell phones from a stash in the front of the office and begin calling potential GOP voters to warn them of the liberal agenda of Chambliss’ opponent, Democrat Jim Martin. The others will spend the day knocking on doors to spread the word.

It’s all part of "Saxby Super Saturday," just one more way Georgia Republicans are trying to squeeze out enough votes to reelect Chambliss next week.

At one time, almost no one would have predicted the Georgia Senate race would come down to this. But Chambliss, who was coasting to reelection for most of the year, hit a rough patch in October after voting for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout. His poll numbers, in strong shape until then, began sagging.

Then, spurred by Barack Obama’s historic presidential campaign, African-Americans headed to the polls in record numbers on Election Day and helped Martin hold Chambliss to 49.8 percent, which triggered a runoff between the two.

The question now is whether Martin can pull off a similar turnout feat just a few days after Thanksgiving — and without Obama on the ballot.

Either way, the president-elect is at the center of this abbreviated campaign. Martin has closely linked his efforts to Obama, running television ads that have made ample use of him — including one that features footage of Obama’s victory speech in Chicago’s Grant Park. Obama himself took a small step toward helping Martin by recording a radio ad urging voters to return to the polls for Martin in the runoff, which has also been used in robocalls across the state.

While it’s unlikely that Obama will actually travel to Georgia to rally supporters, in the meantime, Martin is relying heavily on the president-elect’s campaign infrastructure. [....]

This avoiding the race tells me one of two things..... either 'O' is afraid that his presence and coattails will not be enough to drag Martin across the finish line and doesn't want that fact recognized before he is even POTUS, ..... or, he is soooo narcissistic that he believes that campaigning for a mere Senator is beneath him. Even the Senator that could give him a bullet proof 60 vote majority in the Senate.

I've go my conclusions --- have you got yours?

Gonna be a cold, bare winter.........................

Senator Saxby Chambliss is singing the hallelujah Sarah chorus.

Many of us Sarah Palin fans have been waiting to see if and when she would resurface in National politics. Apparently answering a call for help, Governor Palin is flying in to Georgia on December 1st, the last day before the Senator's run-off election and will appear with Chambliss at four different rallies on that day.

A whole passel of folks are gonna be watching this little event. We know she drew the big crowds in the Presidential Election, now we'll find out if she has the legs (no pun intended) and coat tails to match her crowd pleasing oratory style. Let's hope she does well! God knows both parties are demonstrating the results of generations of incest at the highest levels, much like the royalty of Europe. Some fresh genes need to be introduced to that beltway pool!

If she does well, and Saxby Chambliss wins the run-off, you can bet she'll be returning to Alaska with a big Chit in her handbag.......

A classic sit-com lives on........

Anybody who watched TV in the 80's has to remember the famous WKRP in Cincinatti Thanksgiving episoded when they bombarded a parking lot with live turkeys...... the legend lives on!!

Frozen turkey bowling heralds Thanksgiving in Cincinnati

November 23, 2008

CINCINNATI (AP) - Cincinnati is warming up for Thanksgiving with its traditional Turkey Bowl, an annual outdoor event using frozen turkeys in place of bowling balls.

Contestants will try to knock down 10 pins Tuesday by sliding rock-hard birds down a lane on a holiday season ice skating rink in downtown's landmark Fountain Square.

The person with the highest score after three rounds wins $100 cash and "WKRP in Cincinnati" DVDs including the series' famous "Turkeys Away" episode.

That's the one about a station promotion in which live giveaway turkeys are dropped out of a helicopter to their deaths because the station manager thought turkeys could fly.

The frozen birds used in Turkey Bowl are discarded store turkeys not intended for anyone's table.

The event is sponsored by Jack Rouse Associates, a local company that designs theme park and museum attractions.

For a refresher - go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iafzqOCaxA4

Change? We don't need no steenkin' changes -- just rearrange the furniture!

About that Hellary appointment to Secretary of State.....

..... a few cogent comments from Dick (the Toe Guy) Morris;

Hillary Nomination Would Be An Obama-Nation
Dick Morris and Eileen McGann
Sunday, November 23, 2008

It is still hard to believe but, if Hillary Clinton's "confidantes" are to be trusted, Barack Obama is about to appoint her secretary of state and she is about to accept. This appointment represents the capstone of betrayal of Obama's promise to be the "change we can believe in."

Having upended the Democratic Party, largely over his different views on foreign policy and the war in Iraq, he now turns to the leader of the ancient regime he ousted, derided, mocked and criticized to take over the top international-affairs position in his administration.

No longer, apparently, does he distrust Hillary's "judgment," as he did during the debates when he denounced her vote on the Iraq War resolution. Now, all is forgiven. After all, Obama's election, the only change he apparently truly believed in, is a fait accompli.

Apart from the breathtaking cynicism of the appointment lies the total lack of foreign-policy experience in the new partnership. Neither Clinton nor Obama has spent five minutes conducting any aspect of foreign policy in the past. Neither has ever negotiated anything or dealt with diplomatic issues. It is the blonde leading the blind.

And then there is the question of whether we want a Secretary of State who is compromised, in advance, by her husband's dealings with repressive regimes in Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Dubai, the UAE, Morocco, and governments about which we know nothing. These foreign leaders have paid the Clinton family millions of dollars E2 directly and through their library and/or foundation - funds they can and have used as personal income. How do we know that she can conduct foreign policy independently even if it means biting those who have fed her and her husband?

But the most galling aspect of the appointment is that it puts Obama in the midst of an Administration which, while he appointed it, is not his own. Rather he has now created a government staffed by Clinton people, headed by Clinton appointees, and dominated by Hillary herself. He has willingly created the same untenable situation as that into which Lyndon Johnson stepped when JFK was assassinated in 1963. Johnson inherited a cabinet wholly staffed by Kennedy intimates with Bobby himself as Attorney General. LBJ had no choice and had to spend two years making the government his own. But Obama had all the options in the world and chose to fence himself in by appointing Hillary as Secretary of States, Clinton cabinet member Bill Richardson for Commerce, Clinton staffer Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff, Clinton buddy (and top lobbyist) Tom Daschle to HHS, and Bill's Deputy Attorney General, Eric Holder, to Justice.

Presidents Clinton and Lincoln similarly appointed what Doris Kearns Goodwin has famously called a "team of rivals" to staff their cabinets and Administrations. Lincoln named all of his opponents for the Republican presidential nomination to senior posts in his cabinet and Clinton staffed his White House and much of his cabinet with ambassadors to other wings of the Democratic Party. George Stephanopoulos was his ambassador to House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, Harold Ickes his emissary to organized labor, Al Gore his delegate to the environmentalists, Leon Panetta his liaison with Congressional committee chairmen, Ron Brown his man in the black community, and Henry Cisneros as his go-between with the Hispanics.

In each case, the president acted because to bolster his ties with the factions of his own party because he feared how he would fare with his party in total control of Congress. Neither the Republicans of 1861 nor the Democrats of 1992 saw the president from their own party as their natural leaders. Lincoln's colleagues had chosen him only after a deadlock between the two front runners had paralyzed the convention. Clinton got the nomination only after Governor Mario Cuomo of New York, the party's favorite, had pulled out. Each man was elected with barely 40% of the vote. So each felt constrained to share power with their rivals.

While Obama was not the early favorite of his party, he does not need to defer so ostentatiously to those who fought him for the nomination. His general election mandate clearly entitled him to name who he pleased. But he has chosen to nominate men and women with no loyalty to him and no real stake in his future.

And, standing above all his appointees, like a president-in-exile, is Hillary Rodham Clinton.

If Obama needed any warning about how Hillary will play the game, he need only look at how she handled her appointment. She forced Obama to see her by publicly complaining that she had not heard from him. When he raised the possibility of her appointment to State, she then leaked word that it was in the works. Even the announcement of her appointment was not made by Obama but leaked by Hillary's "confidantes."

Hillary will be a loose cannon as Secretary of State, vindicating her own agenda rather than that of the president and burnishing her own image at every turn. Not since Cordell Hull in the 30s have we had a Secretary so interested in running for president. Not since William Jennings Bryan in the 1910s have we had a defeated nominee named as Secretary. Obama will not be able to control Hillary nor will he be able to control his own administration with Emanuel as Chief of Staff. He will find that his appointees will march to the beat of their own drummer - if he is lucky - and Hillary's if he is not.

Either Obama has chosen to put himself in this untenable situation because he is not wise in the ways of Washington or because he plans to be little more than a figurehead. Given his campaign, neither seems likely. But his promise of change has proven so bankrupt that maybe the rest of his candidacy is too.

These next four years are gonna be a hoot to watch -- just hope they don't ruin the country while they are playing their games......

You little people cut back -- not us!!!!

Green Obama’s official limo is a gas guzzler
Sarah Baxter

On the campaign trail, Barack Obama promised to get a million plug-in hybrid cars on the road by 2015. His own new presidential limousine will be far from green, however.

The Obamobile being prepared for the president-elect is said to be a monster gas-guzzler made by General Motors, the troubled car giant. It will look like a black Cadillac but is built like a tank. A spy photographer who tracks down future car models for magazines snatched pictures of the heavily disguised first-car-in-waiting when it was being road-tested last summer.

The armour-plated car, which has a raised roof, windows up to 5in thick, extra-strength tyres and a body made of steel, aluminium, titanium and ceramics, is thought to be based on a GMC 2500 truck that gets less than 10 miles to the gallon. Three cars are believed to be in production so that two can serve as decoys.

While security is paramount - the car is built to survive roadside bombs as well as gunfire - there are hybrid four-wheel drives on the market, such as Ford’s Mercury Mariner, which some critics believe could have been adapted for the president.

Most environmentalists are in forgiving mood at the prospect of the greenest US president yet. Obama vowed to press ahead with his plans to reduce CO2 emissions while speaking last week to a bipartisan conference on climate sponsored by Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California.

Obama repeated his campaign pledge to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 and to invest $15 billion a year on energy-saving technologies despite the economic melt-down. “Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all,” Obama said. “Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response.”

Would that he could......................

I have a challenge for you. Pilgrims!

I am sharing this discourse with you strictly for information -- please read my comments at the end:

Understanding Obama: The Making of a Fuhrer

By Ali Sina

I must confess, I was not impressed by Sen. Barack Obama from the first time I saw him. At first I was excited to see a black candidate. He looked youthful, spoke well, appeared to be confident, a wholesome presidential package. I was put off soon, not just because of his shallowness but also because there was an air of haughtiness in his demeanor that was unsettling. His posture and his body language were louder than his empty words. Obama's speeches are unlike any political speech we have heard in American history. Never a politician in this land had such a quasi "religious" impact on so many people. The fact that Obama is a total incognito with zero accomplishment makes this inexplicable infatuation alarming. Obama is not an ordinary man. He is not a genius. In fact, he is quite ignorant on most important subjects.. Barack Obama is a narcissist. Dr. Sam Vaknin, the author of "Malignant Self Love," also believes, "Barack Obama appears to be a narcissist."

Vaknin is a world authority on narcissism. He understands it and describes the inner mind of a narcissist like no other person. When he talks about narcissism everyone listens. Vaknin says that Obama's language, posture and demeanor, and the testimonies of his closest, nearest and dearest suggest that the Senator is either a narcissist or he may have narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).

Narcissists project a grandiose but false image of themselves. Jim Jones, the charismatic leader of People's Temple, the man who led over 900 of his followers to cheerfully commit mass suicide and even murder their own children was also a narcissist. Charles Manson, Joseph Koni, Shoko Asahara, Joe Stalin, Saddam, Mao Zedong, Kim Jong IL, and Adolph Hitler are a few examples of narcissists of our time. All these men had a tremendous influence over their fanciers and followers. They created a personality cult around themselves, and with their blazing speeches elevated their admirer's souls, filled their hearts with enthusiasm and instilled in their minds a new zest for life. Those men gave their followers hope! They promised them the moon, but alas, they invariably brought them to their doom. When you are a victim of a cult of personality, you don't know it until it is too late.

One determining factor in the development of NPD is childhood abuse. "Obama's early life was decidedly chaotic and replete with traumatic and mentally bruising dislocations," says Vaknin. "Mixed-race marriages were even less common then. His parents went through a divorce when he was an infant (two years old). Obama saw his father only once again, before he died in a car accident. His mother re-married and Obama had to relocate to Indonesia, a foreign land with a radically foreign culture, to be raised by a stepfather. He was raised as an only child, full of himself and no others. He never had to share the spotlight with any siblings. At the age of ten, he was whisked off to live with his maternal (white) grandparents. He saw his mother only intermittently in the following few years and then she vanished from his life in 1979. She died of cancer in 1995."

One must never underestimate the manipulative genius of pathological narcissists. They project such an imposing personality that it overwhelms those around them. Charmed by the charisma of the narcissist, people become like clay in his hands. They cheerfully do his bidding and delight to be at his service. The narcissist shapes the world around him and reduces others in his own inverted image. He creates a cult of personality; his admirers become his co-dependents.

Narcissists have no interest in things that do not help them to reach their personal objectives. They are focused on one thing alone, and that is power. All other issues are meaningless to them and they do not want to waste their precious time on trivialities. Anything that does not help them is beneath them and does not deserve their attention. If an issue raised in the Senate does not help Obama in one way or another, he has no interest in it. The "Present" vote is a safe vote; he used the "Present" vote all the time as a member of the Illinois legislature. No one can criticize him if things go wrong. Why should he implicate himself in issues that may become controversial when they don't help him personally? Those issues are unworthy by their very nature because they are not about him.

Obama's election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review led to a contract and an advance to write a book about race relations. The University of Chicago Law School provided him with a fellowship and an office to work on his book. The book took him a lot longer than expected and at the end it devolved into…, guess what? His own autobiography! Instead of writing a scholarly paper focusing on race relations, for which he had been paid, Obama could not resist writing about his most sublime self. He entitled the book "Dreams from My Father."

Not surprisingly, Adolph Hitler also wrote his own autobiography when he was still nobody. So did Stalin. For a narcissist no subject is as important as his own self. Why would he waste his precious time and genius writing about insignificant things when he can write about such an august being as himself? Narcissists are often callous and even ruthless. As the norm, they lack conscience. This is evident from Obama's lack of interest in his own brother who lives on only one dollar per month. A man who lives in luxury, who takes a private jet to vacation in Hawaii, and who has raised nearly a half billion dollars for his campaign (something unprecedented in history) has no interest in the plight of his own brother. Why? His brother cannot be used for his ascent to power. A narcissist cares for no one but himself.

This election is like no other election in the history of America. The issues are insignificant compared to what is at stake. What can be more dangerous than having a man bereft of a conscience, a serial liar, and one who cannot distinguish his fantasies from reality as the leader of the free world?

I hate to sound alarmist, but one must be a fool if one is not alarmed. Many politicians are narcissists. They pose no threat to others. They are simply self-serving and selfish. [Witness Al Gore's Income Tax; it reveals that he gave away NO MONEY to charities, not even to a church!] Obama evinces symptoms of pathological narcissism, which is different from the run-of-the-mill narcissism of a Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton, for example. To him reality and fantasy are intertwined. This is a mental health issue, not just a character flaw. Pathological narcissists are dangerous because they look normal and even intelligent. It is this disguise that makes them treacherous. [Look up the word 'treachery.']

Today the Democrats have placed all their hopes in Obama. But this man could put an end to their party [and to this great nation]. The great majority of blacks have also decided to vote for Obama. Only a fool does not know that their support for him is racially driven.

Let us call a spade a spade [No pun intended]. This is racism, pure and simple. The truth is that, while everyone carries a misconceived collective guilt towards blacks for wrongs done centuries ago by a bygone people to a bygone people, the blacks carry a collective rancor, enmity or vendetta towards non-blacks, and to this day want to "stand up" to the white man. They seem to be stuck in 19th century [encouraged by race baiters like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and others].

The downside of this is, that if Obama turns out to be the disaster I predict, he will cause widespread resentment among the whites. The blacks are unlikely to give up their support of their man. Cultic mentality is pernicious and unrelenting. They will dig their heads deeper in the sand and blame Obama's detractors of racism. This will cause a backlash among the whites. The white supremacists will take advantage of the discontent and they will receive widespread support. I predict that in less than four years, racial tensions will increase to levels not seen since the turbulent 1960s. Obama will set the clock back decades. America is the bastion of freedom. The peace of the world depends on the strength of America, and its weakness translates into the triumph of terrorism and victory of rogue nations. It is no wonder that Ahmadinejad, Hugo Chavez, the Maoist Castroists, the Hezbollah, the Hamas, the lawyers of the Guantanamo terrorists, and virtually all sworn enemies of America are so thrilled by the prospect of "their man" in the White House. America is on the verge of destruction. There is no insanity greater than electing a pathological narcissist as president.


When I Googled 'Dr' Sam Vaknim, I found him to have less than a gold standard resume'. Even his PhD is in doubt by some.. But to Ole Pecoz, some of the points set forth in this little discourse are worth knowing so that we might better understand events as they unfold ....... or don't! Hopefully they don't. I am not a racist, my prejudices lean against mealy mouthed liberal, big government supporters, regardless of their race, religion, ethnic background or sexual preferences.

I am assuming that all you loyal Pilgrims are adults and can think for yourselves - and do your own research. I would be plumb tickled to see your comments about this item!

May God Bless America!!!

Where is Drudge when we need him?

Seems like the only time the MSM gets involved in a story that my endanger a Dem is when Drudge drags them to it and sticks their noses in it! i.e. Monica story which had been spiked by Newsweek ----

True or False, right or wrong, this story about 'O's birth certificate has legs that will continue to hound him and us (U.S.) until it is resolved. And it is so easily to answer and quash.

Now Ambassador Keyes et al have sued in California Court to estop the California Electors to cast California's votes until proof 'natural born citizenship' is offered.

But where is Drudge - and where is the Press?

Here is a copy of the complaint (suit) filed, the meat starts on about page 6

http://www.ballot-access.org/2008/WRIT-OF-MANDATE.pdf

He's coming early this year I reckon --- and you Pilgrims are paying the bills....

When is assault not racist or a 'hate crime'?

Why when it's black on white --- that's when! Read this report then I'll comment:

Sarah Palin supporter attacked on Augsburg campus on election night
Student says woman called her racist
By Maricella Miranda
mmiranda@pioneerpress.com

She wore the button in support of her home-state candidate for vice president.

Now Annie Grossmann, 18, a first-year student at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, says the Sarah Palin button led four women to attack her on campus on election night.

"I didn't expect something like that to happen," said the Delta Junction, Alaska, native.

The Minneapolis Police Department is investigating the assault, police spokesman Sgt. Jesse Garcia said Wednesday. No suspects have been identified.

It was about 9:45 p.m. Nov. 4 when Grossmann left her dorm building, where she was watching the U.S. presidential election results unfold with a group of friends, she said.

When Grossmann walked around the building, four women approached her.

She did not recognize them.

Before she said anything to them, one of the women started calling Grossmann racist, spitting in her face as she spoke. Grossmann identified the suspects as black and close to her age, but she did not provide futher descriptions.

Grossmann tried to leave, but the woman held her, pulling her by the shoulders, she said. Grossmann finally pushed the woman and walked away.

That's when the woman grabbed her by the shoulder, spun her around and punched her in the face. The punch caused Grossmann to hit her head on a brick wall.

"Are you serious?" she asked the woman. The suspects left the scene, Grossmann said.

Grossmann returned to her dorm to ice her wound. She reported the attack the next
day to campus security and the Minneapolis police.

"It's sad. I'm not racist in the least. It's ridiculous," Grossmann said Wednesday.

The attack didn't surprise other Republicans at Augsburg, who say they often are ridiculed for their

Here's the question Pilgrims -- If this had been four white students pounding on a black student for sporting a Obama pin -- would this be the first time you'da read about it - or would it have been on the news six times a day and front page on the New York Times?

Add the fact that this young lady is from Alaska - and it ain't much of a surprise she'd be a Sarah Palin fan -- 80% of Alaskans are!!!

I always admire someone who has the same thoughts I have... Go Annie!

Genius, Thy Name is Obama
Ann Coulter
November 19, 2008

With Time magazine comparing Obama to Jesus, I guess we should be relieved that, this week, liberals are only comparing him to Abraham Lincoln.

The one thing every liberal on TV seems to know about Lincoln is that he put rivals in his cabinet, as subtly indicated in the title to historian and plagiarist Doris Kearns Goodwin's book: "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln." Like Lincoln, Goodwin is always open to contributions from her rivals, although Lincoln was better at crediting their words.

And hasn't Obama talked to former rival Hillary about becoming his secretary of state? Hasn't he had a sit-down with Sen. John McCain? Did I imagine this, or is he even now brokering peace talks between Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck?

Ergo: Obama is a genius.

Indeed, historians have just named Obama named the best president-elect ever.

I don't recall the media swooning when President George W. Bush reached out to rivals, such as Sen. Teddy Kennedy, who was asked to co-write Bush's education bill. In fact, the way I remember it, Bush is liberals' most hated president ever (only because they can't remember George Washington or they'd hate him, too).

And yet no modern president has ever done more to bridge partisan divides and show respect to his opponents than George W. Bush. I do not say this with admiration; it is simply a fact.

Throughout the year and again in his convention speech during the 2000 presidential campaign, Gov. Bush bragged that he had "no stake in the bitter arguments of the last few years. I want to change the tone of Washington to one of civility and respect."

(As a side note: Bush would never have been elected president if not for the "bitter arguments of the last few years," in which Republicans exposed and impeached Bill Clinton, which then killed Al Gore's presidential ambitions. So you're welcome.)

But the point is: Bush was massively chummy with his enemies -- Democrats, communists and the Congressional Black Caucus. So chummy that even they began to wonder if he was a little daft.

In his first few weeks in office, Bush met with more than 150 members of Congress, half of them Democrats -- including five events with America's leading liberal menace, Sen. Teddy Kennedy.

Bush's very first social event at the White House was movie night with the Kennedy family to watch "Thirteen Days," a falsely heroic portrayal of JFK's disastrous handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. This suggests to me that Obama's first social move as president will have to be to invite Lindsey Graham over to a screening of "Larry the Cable Guy Saves Christmas."

Naturally, Bush also had primary rival John McCain and his wife, Cindy, over to dinner at the White House.

Bush was the first president in memory to attend the congressional retreats of the opposing party. After two weeks in office, a Wall Street Journal column noted that Bush's charm offensive was "disorienting the local Hatfields and McCoys." (Again: You're welcome.)

Bush even made a special point to meet with the Congressional Black Caucus upon taking office, which -- given their feelings toward Bush -- would be the equivalent of Obama holding a special meet-and-greet session with the upper management of the Ku Klux Klan.

Bush invited the Democratic black mayor of the District of Columbia to the White House, attended a majority black District church service and appointed the first black secretary of state.

And that was all before Feb. 1, 2001. (By the end of his presidency, he would have appointed the first two black secretaries of state.)

Though it was small potatoes after all that palling around with Teddy Kennedy, this is the same George W. Bush who had Muslim "spiritual leaders" to the White House a week after 9/11.

Bush also famously said of then-Russian president, former KGB agent Vladimir Putin, that he looked him in the eye and "was able to get a sense of his soul."

(This made Bush's critics almost as apoplectic as if he had said, "I looked into Putin's eyes and, frankly, I just don't trust the guy." No matter what Bush did, liberals were incensed.)

As president, Bush scuttled the playing of "Hail to the Chief" in his honor and repeatedly reminded his staff to act humbly.

This is as opposed to Obama, who I believe is the first president-elect in history to have his own "Office of the President-elect" seal commissioned.

Like I always say, even if you don't like the current president-elect, you should still have some respect for the office of the presidency-elect.

Hellary's Bag and baggage ......

The Big Three will be in your pocket soon....

while the lame duck session of Congress airs the woes of the Big Three, while at the same time, hiding the true causes.... as sure as 'The One' will be 'da Pres, they'll get into your billfold. From The Thinker:

Expect an early Obama bailout of the Big Three
By C. Edmund Wright

The chances of any meaningful bailout of the Big Three U.S. auto makers are shrinking rapidly in this lame duck session of Congress. With George Bush in the White House and somewhat slimmer Democrat majorities on the Hill, the very fatty pound of flesh the unions want is not possible now. This week's Congressional shenanigans are just chumming the waters and to allow the networks to have all Thanksgiving and Christmas to run "woe is me" stories about the wonderful hard working union families facing economic extinction after the holidays.

That will set the stage for what is sure to be the first big battle of Obamunism. And it is a hugely important battle for the future of business in this country. Forget this little distraction about Hillary and the Secretary of State job. If the Obamunists (my name for the hard core leftists who support Obama and on certain days, Obama himself) can get everything they want regarding the auto industry and widespread forced unionization via the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act that would abolish the secret ballot in unionization elections, this country will be plunged into Euro-socialism faster than Hillary and Bill could have dreamed with their ill-fated "Hillary Care" in 1993.

It's the leftist tri-fecta. Nationalization of industry, explosive union membership growth and job-killing green initiatives in one fell swoop.

And this is what the Obamunists really want. Why else would Obama install Governor Jennifer Granholm and former congressman David Bonior, both of Michigan, on his economic team? These are two key architects of the worst economy in the nation, and they are now in positions of power and influence for Obamanomics. This is not what Mark Cuban had in mind when he issued his suggestions this week via the Huffington Post.

Michigan has been in recession for a number of years, and was running a 9% unemployment rate while the rest of the nation was around 5% or less. This is a state that has elected pro-green and pro-labor liberal upon liberal for years, and they can't seem to figure out "why George Bush has ruined their economy." It never dawns on them that gasoline costs run amok due to
environmental laws, not to mention unsustainable union compensation, might have anything to do with it.





You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see the problem! Nor need you be a Mensa to see the solution..... Chapter 11 re-organization and restructuring for all three companies. Reworked union contracts, realistic pays and benefits..... But you can bet it ain't gonna happen. This second $25,000,000,000 Billion will just go for operating costs (wages and retirement pay) and then they'll be back.......... How sick is all this?

The "O" man shall cureth the earth beforeth the economy.,....

Great little short blurb in RedState.com today following 'The One's major suck up to the RINO Governator's Global Warming boodoggle yesterday:

Obama begins healing planet
Lowering oceans to follow?

Posted by: Josh Painter

Wednesday, November 19, 2008 at 12:20PM CST

For those pundits who assured us that Barack Obama would postpone rewarding his supporters in the powerful environmental lobby at least until the nation's ailing economy can be taken off of life support, guess again. From his triage center known as the Office of the President-Elect, Doc Obama has determined that the planet's condition is more critically in need of attention than the nation's economic health.

In a taped address delivered to the Governors' Global Climate Summit meeting in Beverly Hills Tuesday, the Green Lightworker told the audience, which included a delighted Arnold Schwarzenegger, that it's time to set tight limits on greenhouse emissions:

"Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high, the consequences too serious."
Showing determination to keep his campaign promise to heal the planet, the O-Man wants to go ahead with his cap and trade plan to restrict carbon dioxide emissions and make companies pay for the right to emit CO2. He says that the scheme will generate wealth, $15 billion of which he wants to redistribute to various alternative energy projects.

If this sounds like a tax on energy to you, then you're not alone. At a time when the economy is in the tank and the domestic automakers are holding out their hats in hopes of a big bailout, critics say that this sort of radical environmentalism could lead to an economic collapse.

Meanwhile, I'm wondering if the Morton Kondracke's of the punditocracy are at long last beginning to get the slightest clue that perhaps Obama is not the man that they hoped he was.

Here's another version of the topic of the day!

After all those Million$, Soros finally bought hisself a US President!!

Soros-Funded Democratic Idea Factory Becomes Obama Policy Font

By Edwin Chen

Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Three blocks from the White House, on the 10th floor of a sleek glass building, young workers pound at computers, with giant flat-screen TVs overhead. It has the look and feel of a high-tech startup.

In many ways it is. The product is ideas.

Thanks in part to funding from benefactors such as billionaire George Soros, the Center for American Progress has become in just five years an intellectual wellspring for Democratic policy proposals, including many that are shaping the agenda of the new Obama administration.

Much as the Heritage Foundation provided intellectual heft for the Republican Party in the 1980s, CAP has been an incubator for liberal thought and helped build the platform that triumphed in the 2008 campaign.

``What CAP has done is recapture the role of ideas as an important political force, something the Republicans had been better at for 25 years,'' said Walter Isaacson, president of the Aspen Institute, a non-partisan policy-research organization in Washington.

CAP's president and founder, John Podesta, 59, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, is one of three people running the transition team for president-elect Barack Obama, 47. A squadron of CAP experts is working with them.

Some of the group's recommendations already have been adopted by the president-elect.

Withdrawal of Troops

These include the center's call for a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and a buildup of forces in Afghanistan, a plan for universal health coverage through employer plans and proposals to create purchasing pools that allow small businesses to spread the cost among a larger group of workers. Obama has endorsed much of a CAP plan to create ``green jobs'' linked to alleviating global climate change.

CAP also is advocating the creation of a ``National Energy Council'' headed by an official with the stature of the national security adviser and who would be charged with ``transforming the energy base'' of the U.S. In addition, CAP urges the creation of a White House ``office of social entrepreneurship'' to spur new ideas for addressing social problems.

To help promote its ideas, CAP employs 11 full-time bloggers who contribute to two Web sites, ThinkProgress and the Wonk Room; others prepare daily feeds for radio stations. The center's policy briefings are standing-room only, packed with lobbyists, advocacy-group representatives and reporters looking for insights on where the Obama administration is headed.

`Premier Progressive'

``The center is the premier progressive think tank in Washington,'' said Mark Green, head of the New Democracy Project, an urban-affairs institute in New York.

Just eight days after the Nov. 4 election, CAP released a 300,000-word volume called ``Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President'' that offers advice on issues such as economic revival and fixing the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Work on the book began almost a year ago.

CAP, which has 180 staffers and a $27 million budget, devotes as much as half of its resources to promoting its ideas through blogs, events, publications and media outreach.

The center's future was far from certain in 2003, when wealthy donors such as Soros and film producer Stephen Bing gave $10 million or more to fill what they believed was an intellectual void in the Democratic Party and create a vehicle to produce an agenda for the party's eventual return to power.

Heritage Foundation

Podesta modeled the center on the Heritage Foundation, which became the go-to policy-research organization in 1981 when newly elected President Ronald Reagan embraced its conservative ideas embodied in a book called ``Mandate for Leadership.'' Heritage was just seven years old.

CAP and Heritage have something else in common.

``Others strive to be objective, we don't,'' said Jennifer Palmieri, CAP's vice president for communications.

Podesta likes to say, ``we're not a think tank, we're an action tank,'' said Dan Weiss, an environmental activist who joined CAP last year.

CAP isn't the only Democratic-leaning research organization in Washington with enhanced cachet after Obama's election.

The 92-year-old Brookings Institution, for example, has advisers in Obama's inner circle, including economist Jason Furman and foreign-policy expert Susan Rice. Others are working either part-time or full-time in the Obama transition.

Podesta's center isn't even among the biggest or best- funded. Brookings has a staff of more than 400 and an annual budget of $48 million. Heritage has a staff of 200 and a budget of $60 million. The American Enterprise Institute, which has close ties to the administration of President George W. Bush, has about 140 staffers, including Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, and a budget of $28 million.

Influence

Yet CAP may be the most influential. In addition to Podesta, at least 10 other CAP experts are advising the incoming administration, including Melody Barnes, the center's executive vice president for policy who co-chairs the agency-review working group and Cassandra Butts, the senior vice president for domestic policy, who is now a senior transition staffer.

``John understood that ideas have power in this town, and he brought in super-bright people whose ideas have become essential reading,'' Isaacson said.

CAP's successes offer a lesson for Republican-leaning groups, said James McGann, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia who tracks policy groups.

``They've shown that one has to constantly innovate and be responsible to an ever-changing demographics and electorate, and have policies that are responsive to that,'' McGann said.

You would think that members of the United Auto Workers could fix it, wouldn't you.....

How do you spell auto bailout? U.A.W.!!

The United Auto Workers spent millions of union dues dollars and tens of thousands of union rank and file block pounding for the Dems the last couple of years. Their efforts worked, and now for the first time in years -- they have all three houses on Pennsylvania Avenue bought and paid for: the Senate, the House, and the White House... all beholden to the Union Masters.

Now it's time to pay the piper. The ballots aren't even all counted yet and the UAW has started collecting the IOU's. For their millions in investment, they want BILLIONS in bail out money. Don't think for a minute that this money is for the Big Three! It's for the Big Three to pass on to the pension and and health insurance funds for their union workers.......

Democrats: Big Three aid comes with conditions
By Alexander Bolton
11/16/08

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said lawmakers will attach several conditions for Detroit automakers in return for $25 billion in federal aid.

Frank said Sunday that automakers will be required to submit to Congress their plans for future economic viability and environmental efficiency.

He defended the aid, warning that the economy would receive a painful shock if policy makers allowed automotive giant General Motors, which is running out of cash, to go bankrupt.

“When you talk about the negative shock that would result from bankruptcies of these companies right now…. There are suppliers out there who are owed money, smaller businesses. They get hurt in a bankruptcy,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”“And we all agree that they need to make fundamental changes,” Frank said.

“The question is how much pain can the rest of the economy take while those changes are being implemented.”

It remains up in the air whether Democrats will have enough votes to overcome GOP opposition to the bailout, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has decided to bring the $25 billion in aid combined with a $6 billion extension of unemployment benefits to the floor Monday.
Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl (Ariz.) declared on Fox News Sunday that the package would not pass.

“It's a perfect political setup. And I wonder if that isn't really the point of the exercise this week, since it's pretty clear that it's not going to pass,” said Kyl. “Why wouldn't the Democratic leadership wait until next year."

“I suppose most of us will oppose it as a very bad idea,” he said in reference to Senate Republicans. “This didn't happen to the auto companies overnight. For years they've been sick. They have a bad business model. They have contracts negotiated with the United Auto Workers that impose huge costs.”

Republicans have argued that Chapter 11 bankruptcy would give General Motors a chance to restructure their operations to become more competitive.

“Some people believe that Chapter 11 bankruptcy would be a lot better management than what we have today, where they would reorganize, they would get rid of the management that has brought them to where they are today: bloated contracts [and] everything that goes with it,” said Senate Banking Committee ranking Republican Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), who debated Frank on “Face the Nation.”

Frank said broad stimulus legislation to revive the ailing economy will wait until next year given opposition from President Bush and congressional Republicans.

You Pilgrims know, and I know, and the unions and management and the Congress know that Chapter 11 is the American path toward restructure when corporate debts and daily operating costs outweigh income~

But I don't reckon that song is gonna play well to these puppet masters!!!

Any gamblers out there?

I'm laying odds that when the hollerin' is done, that not only does no Ohioan go to jail for these crimes, I'll bet nobody loses their jobs in this Dimocrat run state!!! Here's how the Akron Beacon is summarizing Joe the Plumber's case so far:

Joe the Plumber case still dripping
Half-dozen agencies access records of Ohio man

By Dennis J. Willard
Beacon Journal staff writer

Published on Friday, Nov 14, 2008

The election is over, but the Joe the Plumber case is not.

Ohio Inspector General Tom Charles said his office is now looking at a half-dozen agencies that accessed state records on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher.

The Beacon Journal has learned that, in addition to the Department of Job and Family Services, two other state offices — the Ohio Department of Taxation and Ohio Attorney General Nancy Rogers — conducted database searches of Joe the Plumber.

Wurzelbacher became an instant celebrity after he asked Barack Obama a series of questions in his Toledo driveway about the Democrat's tax policies.

In the third debate between Obama and Republican John McCain on Oct. 15, the candidates referred to Joe the Plumber more than 20 times.

The next day, the taxation department conducted two separate searches of a database of liens for unpaid taxes that were certified to the Ohio Attorney General's Office for collection.

John Kohlstrand, a taxation department spokesman, said he is prohibited from talking about individual taxpayers, but he confirmed that the databases were checked.

The searches were done to determine whether a lien placed against the individual was appropriate and whether it remained unpaid or not, Kohlstrand said.

The department's first search of the day was unsuccessful because of incorrect information about the individual, Kohlstrand said. Ohio Attorney General Nancy Rogers' office then contacted taxation because it was having difficulty accessing the database, Kohlstrand said. After the two agencies talked, taxation completed a successful search.

Kohlstrand said that the AG's office wanted access to the records so they could turn over to the national media lien information that was a public record in Lucas County. He said the national media did not have reporters in Toledo, so the attorney general's office was helping them out with public records.

On the day following the two searches, the taxation department conducted a search of another in-house database that tracks cases and correspondence between taxpayers and the department before the liens being certified and turned over to the attorney general for collection.

Rick Anthony, deputy tax commissioner, said there are times when a payment can be in the pipeline so a lien appears unpaid when in fact the taxpayer or business has repaid the state.

Anthony said the database searches on both days were conducted to ensure that the information in Lucas County was being properly reported by the media.

''Wouldn't that have been a disaster if the lien had been paid,'' Kohlstrand said. ''The responsible thing for us to do would be to take prompt steps to make it right.''

''We are not aware of any inappropriate browsing of information by anyone in our department pertaining to Mr. Wurzelbacher,'' Kohlstrand said.

Jim Gravelle, a spokesman for Attorney General Rogers, said he could not comment on individual records because of privacy issues. He said he would not confirm or deny that the AG's office went to taxation or whether his office had been queried by the inspector general.

The day after the debate, media outlets began reporting that Joe the Plumber's real name was Samuel, he was not a licensed plumber and he owed close to $1,200 in back taxes and additional money to a hospital.

His home was besieged by media outlets, including television crews that camped on his lawn.

Wurzelbacher had questioned Obama's plan to raise taxes for anyone with an income exceeding $250,000 because he planned to purchase his own plumbing business.

His current income made him eligible for a tax break under Obama's plan.

Wurzelbacher later endorsed McCain at a campaign stop in Ohio and hired the Pathfinder Management group in Nashville to manage his career.

Kohlstrand would not comment on an investigation by the inspector general, but Charles confirmed Thursday that he is looking into the taxation department to determine whether their searches were appropriate.

Charles said he does not know at this point if anyone in any of the agencies did anything wrong.

The inspector general began investigating after news reports surfaced that Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, ordered her agency to conduct background checks on Joe the Plumber.

Jones-Kelley maintains that her agency routinely checks on people who are thrust into the spotlight to determine whether they have unpaid child support bills, are receiving public support from her department or owe unemployment taxes.

After the election, Gov. Ted Strickland placed Jones-Kelley on paid leave. The governor said the suspension was for a matter unrelated to the background checks on Joe the Plumber.

The election is over, but the Joe the Plumber case is not.

Ohio Inspector General Tom Charles said his office is now looking at a half-dozen agencies that accessed state records on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher.

The Beacon Journal has learned that, in addition to the Department of Job and Family Services, two other state offices — the Ohio Department of Taxation and Ohio Attorney General Nancy Rogers — conducted database searches of Joe the Plumber.

Wurzelbacher became an instant celebrity after he asked Barack Obama a series of questions in his Toledo driveway about the Democrat's tax policies.

In the third debate between Obama and Republican John McCain on Oct. 15, the candidates referred to Joe the Plumber more than 20 times.

The next day, the taxation department conducted two separate searches of a database of liens for unpaid taxes that were certified to the Ohio Attorney General's Office for collection.

John Kohlstrand, a taxation department spokesman, said he is prohibited from talking about individual taxpayers, but he confirmed that the databases were checked. [.....]

A pretty God awful state of affairs ....... Ohio, that is!

There's more here, go to this link to read it:

http://www.ohio.com/news/34453464.html