Ka-Boom!

Senior Qaeda Commander Is Killed by U.S. Missile
February 1, 2008

By ERIC SCHMITT

WASHINGTON — An American missile strike in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal areas killed a senior commander of Al Qaeda who had been involved in planning attacks on United States and NATO troops in Afghanistan, American officials said Thursday.

The commander, Abu Laith al-Libi, a Libyan who was about 40 years old, was a longtime lieutenant of Osama bin Laden, the American officials said. He played a pivotal role in recruiting and training operatives in the mountainous tribal areas of western Pakistan, they said. Al Qaeda has built makeshift compounds where both Pakistani militants and foreign fighters conduct training and planning for terrorist attacks.

The American missile strike this week could signal an escalation in American covert action aimed at killing terrorist leaders and dismantling their networks in the tribal areas.

Both the American military and the Central Intelligence Agency fly Predator surveillance aircraft armed with Hellfire missiles along the mountainous border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Nerve

``It did take a Clinton to clean after the first Bush and I think it might take another one to clean up after the second Bush.''

-- Hillary Clinton, when asked about the "Bush-Clinton family control" over the White House during tonight's Democratic debate at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles.

Rather than "cleaning up after the first Bush," Bill Clinton, Hillary's Chief Race Baiter, soiled the Oval Office both literally and figuratively. Or has the NY senator conveniently forgotten the sordid tale of a certain DNA-stained blue Gap dress?

Nothing symbolizes the Clinton presidency better than Monica Lewinsky's DNA-stained blue Gap dress (above)

Take it from a liberal: "We're Failing Our Kids"

I'm no fan of NPR's A Prairie Home Companion host Garrison Keillor, but I can't disagree with his criticism of public education as steered by liberals. Here are excerpts of Keillor's piece published in Salon.com today. I'll let the old liberal Democrat speak for himself.

We're failing our kids: No Child Left Behind has plenty of flaws, but throwing it out because it's a Republican plan is morally disgusting.
By Garrison Keillor

And then there is the grief that old righteous people inflict on the young, such as our public schools. I'm looking at U.S. Department of Education statistics on reading achievement and see that here in Minnesota -- proud, progressive Minnesota -- on a 500-point test (average score: 225), 27 percent of fourth-graders score below basic proficiency, and black and Hispanic kids score 30-some points lower than white on average, and the 30 percent of public schoolkids who come from households in poverty (who qualify for reduced-price school lunches) score 27 points lower than those who don't come from poverty.

Reading is the key to everything. Teaching children to read is a fundamental moral obligation of the society. That 27 percent are at serious risk of crippling illiteracy is an outrageous scandal.

This is a bleak picture for an old Democrat. Face it, the schools are not run by Republican oligarchs in top hats and spats but by perfectly nice, caring, sharing people, with a smattering of yoga/raga/tofu/mojo/mantra folks like my old confreres. Nice people are failing these kids, but when they are called on it, they get very huffy. When the grand poobah Ph.D.s of education stand up and blow, they speak with great confidence about theories of teaching, and considering the test results, the bums ought to be thrown out.

There is much evidence that teaching phonics really works, especially with kids with learning disabilities, a growing constituency. But because phonics is associated with behaviorism and with conservatives, and because the Current Occupant has spoken on the subject, my fellow liberals are opposed.

The No Child Left Behind initiative has plenty of flaws, but the Democrats who are trashing it should take another look at the Reading First program. It is morally disgusting if Democrats throw out Republican programs that are good for children. Life is not a scrimmage. Grown-ups who stick with dogma even though it condemns children to second-class lives should be put on buses and sent to North Dakota to hoe wheat for a year.

Walz's Illegal Immigration "Solution"

Walz: People, technology needed at border
1/28/2008 8:34:17 AM
By Edward Felker
Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Tim Walz, D-Mankato, returned Saturday from El Paso, Texas, after a two-day border security fact-finding trip that convinced him that illegal immigration can be stemmed through additional personnel and technology.

He said he found little support among U.S. Border Patrol and Homeland Security agents for the 700-mile fence envisioned along the southwestern border. Rather, he said, they favor a mix of fencing in urban areas with improved surveillance capabilities and more agents and trained dogs to handle the traffic at official border crossings

Walz's "solution" to illegal immigration is more government employees. How original. He talked to union members, I'm sure. The Austin Post-Bulletin's Online headline for this story read "Walz: Border agents have common sense." Could it be that border agents fear many of them would be out of a job if a security fence were to be built along the border? Duh, Tim!

I doubt the 1st District Congressman talked to farmers, ranchers and other property owners who are harassed, threatened and harmed by those crossing the border unlawfully day after day. Or sought the input of local law enforcement officers regarding the impact of illegal border crossings on crime in their jurisdiction.

Fences put up on the border of other countries work. Israel has been considerably safer from terrorist bombings since they erected a border fence between them and those who would do them harm.

Krugman's Revisionism

He is at it again. Paul Krugman, NY Times columnist and perennial Clinton sycophant, sees worrisome parallels between Barack Obama's 2008 and Bill Clinton's 1992 primary campaigns. I'll let you read it for yourself, but I had to point out the irony of his last paragraph.

What the Democrats should do is get back to talking about issues — a focus on issues has been the great contribution of John Edwards to this campaign — and about who is best prepared to push their agenda forward.

John Edwards' "great contribution" is exactly why Hillary and Obama are NOT talking about issues. They know that being honest and straightforward about their far-left liberalism would make them as popular with the American electorate as John Edwards is among Democrats.

The Party of the Past

Ted Kennedy endorsed Barack Obama's Democratic nomination bid today

Caroline's and Uncle Teddy Kennedy's endorsements are astounding. The stalwarts of the liberal party are distancing themselves from Hillary, Bill and their ugliness and racial/gender divisiveness. They are sensing something different here. They are looking into the future of the party and don't see the Clintons there. This contest is about electoral longevity.

Obama has tapped into a demographic that they covet. Kennedy, Kerry and other near-extinction liberal dinosaurs know they are living on borrowed time regarding the constituencies that have voted for them in the past. Their support of Obama has more to do with riding in his wake than sincerely supporting him and his candidacy.

Having said all that, Obama is all hat and no cattle. He says a lot without saying much. He says it really well, though.

I hope Bill Clinton stays center stage for the rest of the campaign season. He is exposing the racial and gender conflicts within his liberal Democratic Party for all to see. Those of us who have been paying attention have known for years that they are the true party of condescension, division and prejudice. Hillary and her campaign are pragmatists, however. They have to know that Bill's rhetoric energized Black voters to vote for Obama and skunked Hillary in South Carolina and will dump him accordingly. Or at least script him differently.

It's hard to know how this whole thing is going to shake out. It is certainly not over for Hillary. She is ahead of Obama in the delegate count. I am not sure she is doing herself any favors with the DNC by campaigning in Florida other than pandering to Hispanics and generating photo-ops. It's funny to watch her defend Florida Democrats' right to vote when she and Bill tried so hard to suppress both union and Black votes in Nevada and South Carolina, respectively.

Either Barack or Hillary would be disastrous presidents both domestically and particularly in terms of foreign policy and engagement.

Have you seen the movie "The Kingdom?" If not, you should.

What a chilling reminder of the clear and present danger the Middle East is. Neither Obama nor Clinton understand the seriousness and magnitude of the challenge of Islamic extremism. America needs a president who will be ready to stare terrorists in the face from day one. Neither Democrat can do that.

ROUTED!

Obama Dominates Charged SC Primary
Jan 26, 9:15 PM (ET)

By DAVID ESPO and CHARLES BABINGTON

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Barack Obama routed Hillary Rodham Clinton in the racially charged South Carolina primary Saturday night, regaining campaign momentum in the prelude to a Feb. 5 coast-to-coast competition for more than 1,600 Democratic National Convention delegates.

"The choice in this election is not about regions or religions or genders," Obama said at a boisterous victory rally. "It's not about rich versus poor, young versus old and it's not about black versus white. It's about the past versus the future."

The audience chanted "Race doesn't matter" as it awaited Obama to make his appearance.But it did, in a primary that shattered turnout records.

About half the voters were black, according to polling place interviews, and four out of five of them supported Obama. Black women turned out in particularly large numbers. Obama, the first-term Illinois senator, got a quarter of the white vote while Clinton and Edwards split the rest.

Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina was running third, a sharp setback in the state where he was born and scored a primary victory in his first presidential campaign four years ago. Even so, aides said he would remain in the race.

The victory was Obama's first since he won the kickoff Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3. Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, scored an upset in the New Hampshire primary a few days later. They split the Nevada caucuses, she winning the turnout race, he gaining a one-delegate margin. In an historic race, she hopes to become the first woman to occupy the White House, and Obama is the strongest black contender in history.

The South Carolina primary marked the end of the first phase of the campaign for the Democratic nomination, a series of single-state contests that winnowed the field, conferred co-front-runner status on Clinton and Obama but had relatively few delegates at stake.

That all changes in 10 days' time, when New York, Illinois and California are among the 15 states holding primaries in a virtual nationwide primary. Another seven states and American Samoa will hold Democratic caucuses on the same day.

Obama took a thinly veiled swipe at Clinton in his remarks.

"We are up against conventional thinking that says your ability to lead as president comes from longevity in Washington or proximity to the White House. But we know that real leadership is about candor, and judgment, and the ability to rally Americans from all walks of life around a common purpose - a higher purpose."

Looking ahead to Feb. 5, he added that "nearly half the nation will have the chance to join us in saying that we are tired of business-as-usual in Washington, we are hungry for change, and we are ready to believe again."

Clinton issued a statement saying she had called Obama to congratulate him on his victory. She quickly turned her focus to the primaries ahead. "For those who have lost their job or their home or their health care, I will focus on the solutions needed to move this country forward," she said.

Returns from 95 percent of the state's precincts showed Obama winning 55 percent in the three-way race, Clinton gaining 27 percent and Edwards at 18 percent.

Even in the face of a humiliating defeat, Hillary insists on her tired old refrains. She is tone deaf. Even better news than Monica Lewinsky's former boyfriend's wife's defeat in the South Carolina primary is the possibility that the former first lady's campaign may retire Bill Clinton as Prevaricator in Chief.

Bill Clinton's blantant and repulsive race baiting got the rejection it deserved.

The Clinton-Rezko Connection: Still More Hypocrisy from Hillary and Bill

Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton and "slum landlord" Tony Rezko. I looks like Rezko was alright when he was greasing the Clintons' palms.

Photo surfaces of Hillary Clinton and Tony Rezko

By Mike Dorning

CHARLESTON, S.C.--A photo has surfaced that shows Hillary and Bill Clinton posing with Chicago developer Tony Rezko, a Barack Obama contributor whom Hillary Clinton condemned as a "slum landlord" supporter of the Illinois senator earlier this week.

Clinton was shown the photo during an interview on NBC's Show this morning but told host Matt Lauer she did not remember meeting Rezko.

"No, I don't," Clinton told Lauer. "You know, I probably have taken hundreds of thousands of pictures.""I don't know the man. I wouldn't know him if he walked in the door. I don't have a 17-year relationship with him," Clinton added.

During a presidential debate Monday evening, Clinton blasted Obama for his relationship with Rezko, telling Obama she had fought Republican policies as first lady during the 1990s while "you were practicing law and representing your contributor, Rezko, in his slum landlord business in inner-city Chicago."

Endorsements or Indictments?

The Gray Lady 's primary choices are (Surprise!) John McCain and Hillary Clinton.

Of McCain, the NY Times editors say:

Mr. McCain was one of the first prominent Republicans to point out how badly the war in Iraq was being managed. We wish he could now see as clearly past the temporary victories produced by Mr. Bush’s unsustainable escalation, which have not led to any change in Iraq’s murderous political calculus. At the least, he owes Americans a real idea of how he would win this war, which he says he can do. We disagree on issues like reproductive rights and gay marriage.

In 2006, however, Mr. McCain stood up for the humane treatment of prisoners and for a ban on torture. We said then that he was being conned by Mr. Bush, who had no intention of following the rules. But Mr. McCain took a stand, just as he did in recognizing the threat of global warming early. He has been a staunch advocate
of campaign finance reform, working with Senator Russ Feingold, among the most
liberal of Democrats, on groundbreaking legislation, just as he worked with Senator Edward Kennedy on immigration reform.

That doesn’t make him a moderate, but it makes him the best choice for the party’s presidential nomination.

McCain is the new Bob Dole. He is definitely the Republican candidate of the left as indicated by the NY Times' backhanded primary endorsement. Having inflated his nomination bid by voting for him as Independents, liberal Democrats are moving in for the kill.

Shockingly, though the NY Times editors praise John McCain for selling out to some of the most liberal elements of the regressive Democratic Party on campaign finance reform and immigration, they don't consider him a "moderate." And then they take umbrage whey they are labeled liberals.

As for Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic Party editors echo her campaign themes when they say:

The sense of possibility, of a generational shift, rouses Mr. Obama’s audiences and not just through rhetorical flourishes. He shows voters that he understands how much they hunger for a break with the Bush years, for leadership and vision and true bipartisanship. We hunger for that, too. But we need more specifics to go with his amorphous promise of a new governing majority, a clearer sense of how he would govern.

The potential upside of a great Obama presidency is enticing, but this country faces huge problems, and will no doubt be facing more that we can’t foresee. The next president needs to start immediately on challenges that will require concrete solutions, resolve, and the ability to make government work. Mrs. Clinton is more qualified, right now, to be president.

We opposed President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq and we disagree with Mrs. Clinton’s vote for the resolution on the use of force. That’s not the issue now; it is how the war will be ended. Mrs. Clinton seems not only more aware than Mr. Obama of the consequences of withdrawal, but is already thinking through the diplomatic and military steps that will be required to contain Iraq’s chaos after American troops leave.

The White liberal establishment elite and its media surrogates at the New York Times have dragged Barack Obama from the back of the bus and thrown him under it. If elected, will the NY Times declare Hillary the first black female president? I wouldn't put it past them.

Notice how nonchalantly the NY Times editorial board dismisses Hillary's vote to give President Bush authority to go to war with Iraq and how sycophantically they mimic her campaign mantra of "experience" and fictitious readiness to "lead from day one." Shameful.

Race Baiter in Chief

Race baiting in S.C.
By CHARLES BABINGTON

Associated Press Writer

DILLON, S.C. - Bill Clinton said Wednesday he expects blacks to vote for Barack Obama and women to vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the dynamic may cause his wife to lose the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary Saturday.

The comments by the former president — who also lashed out at Obama and the news media — mark one of the starkest commentaries yet on the possible role of race, although it has been a subtext of the Obama-Clinton rivalry for months. The comments also furthered the Clintons' bid to play down Sen. Clinton's chances of winning in a state where Obama seems to be ahead.

There is no racial "subtext" in the Obama-Clinton contest. Bill Clinton, Hillary's chief surrogate, is waging an open race war against Obama with his wife's blessing. Or does anyone really think that Monica Lewinsky's former paramour is really speaking off the cuff out there?

So much for tolerance, diversity and affirmative action from the good liberal White folk.

Thank you, Fred.

Slap on the Wrist

"Dirty bomb" terrorist defendant Jose Padilla was sentenced to 17 years and four months in prison today. U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke departed downward from sentencing guidelines that ranged from 30 years to life.

Padilla and co-defendants Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi will most likely have their prison sentences reduced even more when they are credited with time served during pretrial detentions and for good behavior. Hassoun and Jayyousi were sentenced to 15 years and eight months and 12 years and eight months respectively.

The courts are the least effective venues to fight terrorism.

Roe v. Wade: Murder by the Millions

Liberal Fascism

I have it on reserve at the Rochester Public Library. I'm really looking forward to reading it.


Summary :

"Liberal fascism offers a new perspective on the theories and practices that define fascist politics. Replacing conveniently manufactured myths with surprising and enlightening research, Jonah Goldberg reminds us that the original fascists were really on the left, and that liberals from Woodrow Wilson to FDR to Hillary Clinton have advocated policies and principles remarkably similar to those of Hitler's National Socialism and Mussolini's Fascism." "These assertions may sound strange to modern ears, but that is simply because we have forgotten what fascism is. In this angry, funny, smart, contentious book, Jonah Goldberg turns our preconceptions inside out and shows us the true meaning of liberal fascism."--BOOK JACKET. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Publisher's Weekly Review In this provocative and well-researched book, Goldberg probes modern liberalism's spooky origins in early 20th-century fascist politics. With chapter titles such as Adolf Hitler: Man of the Left and Brave New Village: Hillary Clinton and the Meaning of Liberal Fascism Goldberg argues that fascism has always been a phenomenon of the left. This is Goldberg's first book, and he wisely curbs his wry National Review style. Goldberg's study of the conceptual overlap between fascism and ideas emanating from the environmental movement, Hollywood, the Democratic Party and what he calls other left-wing organs is shocking and hilarious. He lays low such lights of liberal history as Margaret Sanger, apparently a radical eugenicist, and JFK, whose cult of personality, according to Goldberg, reeks of fascist political theater. Much of this will be music to conservatives' ears, but other readers may be stopped cold by the parallels Goldberg draws between Nazi Germany and the New Deal. The book's tone suffers as it oscillates between revisionist historical analyses and the application of fascist themes to American popular culture; nonetheless, the controversial arc Goldberg draws from Mussolini to The Matrix is well-researched, seriously argued and funny. (Jan. 8) Copyright � Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright Reed Business Information

Table of Contents Introduction: Everything You Know About Fascism Is Wrong 1 1 Mussolini: The Father of Fascism 25 2 Adolf Hitler: Man of the Left 53 3 Woodrow Wilson and the Birth of Liberal Fascism 78 4 Franklin Roosevelt's Fascist New Deal 121 5 The 1960s: Fascism Takes to the Streets 163 6 From Kennedy's Myth to Johnson's Dream: Liberal Fascism and the Cult of the State 201 7 Liberal Racism: The Eugenic Ghost in the Fascist Machine 243 8 Liberal Fascist Economics 284 9 Brave New Village: Hillary Clinton and the Meaning of Liberal Fascism 317 10 The New Age: We're All Fascists Now 358 Afterword: The Tempting of Conservatism 391 Acknowledgments 407 Appendix The Nazi Party Platform 410 Notes 414 Index 468

Truce? What Truce?

Clinton, Obama engage in bitter debate
AP

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - Democratic presidential rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama accused each other of repeatedly and deliberately distorting the truth for political gain Monday night in a highly personal, finger-wagging debate that ranged from the war in Iraq to Bill Clinton's role in the campaign.

The irony here is that, for once, they are both right.

If looks could kill ...

Where is the [liberal] love?

Separation of Church and State Liberal Style

Let us Pray

Clinton on Sunday appeared in Harlem, the largely black New York City neighborhood where her husband opened an office. Bill Clinton carried the support of blacks in his campaigns and his wife hoped for the same.

The Rev. Calvin Butts, a supporter of the former first lady, introduced her at a service in the Abyssinian Baptist Church as someone who "has been our friend" before officially endorsing her. As dozens of Obama supporters shouted "Harlem for Obama," Clinton's supporters tried to drown them out by shouting "Hil-la-ry!"

Clinton spoke warmly of her opponent saying, "I recognize what a challenging choice this is."

Why is it that nobody objects to liberals waging political campaigns in places of worship? Just wondering.

The Dream Lives ... and Thrives.

I just got back home from the Annual MLK Breakfast sponsored by the Rochester Chamber of Commerce and the Rochester chapter of the NAACP. Rochester School District Superintendent Romain Dallemand was the keynote speaker. How fortunate we are to have a man of his education, experience, focus and moral clarity as the leader of our school district.

Hillary's Twisted Dream

“I would point to the fact that that Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when he was able to get through Congress something that President Kennedy was hopeful to do, the president before had not even tried, but it took a president to get it done. That dream became a reality, the power of that dream became real in people’s lives because we had a president who said we are going to do it, and actually got it accomplished.”

Dismissing Dr. Martin Luther King's fight for civil rights in favor of the work of a politician should tell you everything you need to know about Hillary Rodham Clinton's soul. Or what passes for it.

Gobal Warming. Right.

Oprah a "Traitor?"

Women turn on ‘traitor’ Oprah Winfrey for backing Barack Obama
Tony Allen-Mills, New York

AMERICA’S favourite television presenter is paying a painful price for her intervention in the US presidential campaign last month. Oprah Winfrey has been dubbed a “traitor” by some of her female fans for supporting Barack Obama instead of Hillary Clinton.

Winfrey’s website, Oprah.com, has been flooded with abarrage of abuse since the queen of daytime chat shows joined Obama on a tour of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina in mid-December.

Her intervention was widely credited with broadening Obama’s national appeal - especially among women - and with helping him to an upset victory over Clinton in the first vote of the election year in Iowa.

Yet a backlash by Clinton supporters appears to have prompted a rethink by Winfrey, the African-American media titan who is routinely described as the most influential woman on television.

She did not reappear in the final days before the New Hampshire primary - which Obama lost to Clinton - and has been absent from the most recent campaigning in SouthCarolina, which votes next weekend.

Obama aides believe that Winfrey will return to the campaign. Her own staff noted last week that in addition to her daily broadcasts on television and satellite radio, she has also been busy negotiating a multi-million-dollar deal with the Discovery cable network to create her own television channel, the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Yet Obama’s rivals suspect that Winfrey has been startled by the virulent reaction to her previous campaign appearance.

It started with a message on her website entitled “Oprah is a traitor” and rapidly expanded to include several discussions that attracted hundreds of comments.

In the original post, a reader called austaz68 said she “cannot believe that women all over this country are not up in arms over Oprah’s backing of Obama. For the first time in history we actually have a shot at putting a woman in the White House and Oprah backs the black MAN. She’s choosing her race over her gender.”

In a subsequent comment, 2nurselady wrote: “I don’t think Oprah is a ‘traitor’, but I do think she may be alienating a lot of her fans.”

Others have accused Winfrey of racism for siding with Obama when such a well qualified woman as Clinton was running.

Winfrey has built her career on empathising with women’s issues and offering a daily diet of redemption and hope. Her show typically focuses on women who have suffered but survived.

So hostile has the response been that some suspect dirty tricks. “All the rude and hateful messages on here can’t be from Oprah fans,” another visitor noted. “Someone’s campaign (wonder who?) is sabotaging the message boards.”

Hell hath no fury as Hillary's minions scorned by a powerful Black woman who exercises her constitutional right to support whomever she chooses, for whatever reasons she chooses, to become the Democratic nominee for President of the United States of America.

The very idea that supporting Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton makes Oprah a traitor for "choosing her race over her gender" is insane. Who are these people? Clintonites, of course.

These people are not Ophra's fans. Their behavior betrays a fanaticism, vindictiveness and nastiness that characterize Hillary's deranged followers.

This is only a taste of what a Hillary presidency would be like with her Brownshirst ensuring purity of thought and monopoly of devotion to First Woman Hillary. Or else. Sig Heil!

Official Portrait?

You Go, Girl!

Michelle Obama

“I get confused when people say there are a lot of choices in this race. There are so many more experienced candidates. My response is, no, that’s not true. You’ve got two choices in this race. You’ve got the same old thing over and over again that hasn’t worked for regular folks in my lifetime. And then we have Barack Obama.”

-- Michelle Obama, speaking at a rally in Las Vegas earlier today.

The Same Old Thing

I Want One

The Hilllary campaign opened an office in Rochester this week. I wonder if they have this bumper sticker to give away.

Reagan Derangement Syndrome

I told you so. Obama is getting it from his rivals in the Democratic Party for using Ronaldus Maximus Reagan as an example of positive change, optimism, dynamism, and entrepreneurship.

"Ronald Reagan, the man who busted unions, the man who did everything in his power to destroy the organized labor movement, the man who created a tax structure that favored the richest Americans against middle class and working families, ... we know that Ronald Reagan is not an example of change for a presidential candidate running in the Democratic Party ... I would never use Ronald Reagan as an example of change."

-- John Edwards, criticizing Barack Obama's praise of Ronald Reagan

Reagan "busted" unions in the sense that he effectively curbed their abuses. Liberals will take their bitter hate toward the Gipper to their grave.

Hillary "Me Too" Clinton piled on by spewing her drivel. "That's not the way I remember the last ten to fifteen years," she retorted. That's not really saying much since her responses to questions under oath before grand juries in the past consisted mainly of statements such as "I can't recall," and "I don't remember." Pitiful.

Bill Wigs Out over Lawsuit Meant to Disenfranchise Union Workers

Bill Clinton flipped out when a reporter asked him to comment on a lawsuit filed by the Nevada Teachers Association and other Hillary minions seeking to disenfranchise upwards of 60,000 Las Vegas casino workers during the upcoming caucus. Watch it and marvel as the disgraced former president loses it and berates the reporter who asked him about the lawsuit. Can Clinton's skin be any thinner?




Today, the Nevada Teachers Union and other Hillary surrogates challenged state and national Democratic Party caucus rules unanimously agreed upon last year and which were designed to make it easier for casino workers such as bellhops, housekeepers and watresses - the very people Hillary claims are "invisible to this administration" - to participate in the presidential candidate selection process. The rules Hillary wants to void make it possible for casino workers to caucus at or near their jobs rather than at their own precincts.

Apparently, the rules were just fine when Hillary enjoyed an aura of invincibility and up until two days ago, when the heavily Hispanic Culinary Workers Union Local 226, of which Las Vegas strip workers are a major part, endorsed Barack Obama. How undemocratic!

As shameful as the lawsuit is, it fits the Clintonian attitude toward voting that may not go their way. They are fond of a rigged game and the sure bet. They do not want their pursuit of power at any cost to be thwarted by the will of casino workers.

In a scathing indictment under the tag "vote suppresion," a liberal blogger states that the lawsuit is "an anti-democratic tactic typically used by Republicans, but now Democrats are using it against their own voters." Ouch!

There is an insurrection underway among the rank and file of the Democratic Party. As the reigning king and queen of the party, Hillary and Bill will do what they must to keep their crowns - and their heads! Even if it means taking votes away from the very people whose economic interests they falsely claim to represent.

Castrato

Some people I respect, politically concerned people like you who watch this show so faithfully every night, people who care about this country think I've been disrespectful for Hillary Clinton, not as a candidate, but as a woman. They point to something I said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" the morning after the New Hampshire primary, that her election to the U.S. Senate and all that's come since was a result of her toughness, but also the sympathy for her because, her husband embarrassed her by the conduct that led to his impeachment because he, in the words I used "messed around."
...........................................................................................
Was it fair to say that Hillary Clinton, like any great politician took advantage of a crisis to prove herself? Was her conduct in 1998 a key to starting her independent electoral career the following year? Yes. Was it fair to imply that Hillary's whole career depending on being a victim of an unfaithful husband? No. And that's what it sounded like I was saying. And it hurt people I'd like to think normally like what I say, in fact, normally like me.

As I said, I rely on my heart to guide me in the heated, fast-paced talk we have here on "Hardball." If my heart has not always controlled my words, on those occasions when I have not taken the time to say things right or have simply said the inappropriate thing, I'll try to be clearer, smarter, more obviously in support of the right of women, of all people, the full equality and respect for their ambitions. So I get it.

On the particular point, if I'd said it the only reason John McCain has come so far is that he got shot down over North Vietnamese, North Vietnam and captured by the enemy, I'd be brutally ignoring the courage and guts he showed in bearing up under his captivity. Saying that Senator Clinton got where she got, simply because her husband did what he did to her is just as callous, and I can see now it comes across just as nasty, worse yet, just as dismissive.

-- Chris Mathews, on Thursday night's "Hardball"

The truth of the matter is Mathews caved to pressure from liberal bloggers who are displeased with his dead-on analysis of Hillary's modus operandi when she is in a tight spot: play the victim and the gender card. Media Matters has singled Mathews out in a particularly vicious way:

Using overtly sexist language, he has referred to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) as a "she devil" and compared her to a "strip-teaser." He has called her "witchy" and likened her voice to "fingernails on a blackboard." He has referred to men who support her as "castratos in the eunuch chorus." He has suggested Clinton is not "a convincing mom" and said "modern women" like Clinton are unacceptable to "Midwest guys." He has called her "Madame Defarge" and "Nurse Ratched."

Had enough? Contact MSNBC to tell them what you think.

Well, it seems that Mathews has become the newest member of the Hillary Clinton Eunuch Chorus. He has emasculated himself under pressure from leftwing nutroots. By the way, why aren't the leftwing bloggers giving Mathews the Imus treatment? Just asking.

It was absolutely fair of Mathews and every other pundit who said so to imply that when the going gets tough, Hillary plays Damsel in Distress and milks sympathy in order to catch a breather and slither out of political and personal trouble. Here are Mathews' statements that started it all and here is his pathetic apology. I wonder if Tom Russert is next.

Mathews claims that from now on he will "try to be clearer, smarter, more obviously in support of the right of women, of all people, the full equality and respect for their ambitions" and that his heart "bears only goodwill toward people trying to make it out there, especially those who haven't before. Unless, of course, he is talking about Republicans.

Reagan/Obama '08

"Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not, and a way that Bill Clinton did not ... We want clarity, we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing."

-- Barack Obama, in an interview with the Reno Gazette-Journal's editorial board

Obama's praise is not going to sit well with the rabid anti-Reagan leftwingnut faction of the regressive liberal Democratic party. They may even go so far as to demand a return of recent campaign contributions. Their irrational, reactionary ill disposition toward one of the most distinguished American presidents of the 20th century is nothing short of pathological.

If Obama thought the Clintonistas hated him before, wait until they get wind of this quote.

Lest We Forget

Four more years? Of this?

I-35W Bridge Collapse "Critical Factor": Undersized Gusset Plates

Feds point to poorly designed gusset plates as cause of bridge collapse
1/15/2008 10:09:44 PM
By Frederic J. Fromme

Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Undersized gusset plates in the Interstate 35-W bridge in Minneapolis were "the critical factor" in the bridge collapse last year that killed 13 people and injured 100, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.

Chairman Mark Rosenker said the plates, which connected steel beams, were roughly half the thickness they should have been because of a design error. Investigators found 16 fractured gusset plates from the bridge's center span, he said.

"It is the undersizing of the design which we believe is the critical factor here. It is the critical factor that began the process of this collapse. That's what failed," Rosenker said.

The Minneapolis bridge was a steel-deck truss bridge that opened in 1967. Rosenker said it wasn't clear how the design flaw made it into the bridge because investigators couldn't find the design calculations.

Once they made it into the completed bridge, he said, there was little chance they would be noticed by inspectors.

Cool heads have weighed in on the preliminary report:

"The NTSB investigation is not yet complete, but the focus of the investigation appears headed in a direction different than many of the political claims that have been made here in Minnesota. It is our hope that at least now people will reserve further judgment until the investigation is complete and that we strive to address these matters in a fair, factual and nonpolitical manner." -- Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

"From the day after the collapse, from those of us involved in the industry the most important thing has been to determine the cause. ... There might be a small measure of relief at this time for those in the industry to know that we are now seeing the beginnings of the cause." -- Dan Dorgan, state bridge engineer.

"The work of the NTSB shows further that last summer's knee-jerk reaction to increase the gas tax and create another duplicative federal program before knowing what caused the collapse made no sense." -- U.S. Rep. John L. Mica, (R-FL), the top Republican on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

But jus as the adults were done talking, in came the tone-deaf regressives.

"As the governor has said, the NTSB investigation is not yet complete. It would be helpful if he would follow his own advice and not add his own speculation on the cause of the 35W bridge collapse. ... (W)e told Minnesotans we will work to restore their faith in our roads and bridges. That includes finding not only the cause of the bridge collapse, but also reviewing decisions made by leadership at the Minnesota Department of Transportation. Finally, the most important step we can take is passage of a bi-partisan, comprehensive transportation funding plan that serves all of Minnesota." -- House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher (DFL-MN)

"The collapse of the I-35W bridge should be a call to action. When over 12 percent of all American bridges are in need of serious repair and the Highway Trust Fund is projected to go into deficit in (fiscal year 2009) -- it's clear additional investments in our state and national infrastructure must be made." -- U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)

"These findings are helpful, but they do not make Minnesotans feel any safer as they travel with their families across our bridges. An improved NTSB inspection process on both the state and federal levels, as well as a commitment by all our elected officials -- including those running for president -- to fully fund our infrastructure needs would restore the public's faith in our roads and bridges." -- U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN)

Anderson Kelliher, Klobuchar and Ellison are not listening. A "bi-partisan, comprehensive transportation funding plan," "additional investments" and "a commitment by all our elected officials to fully fund our infrastructure needs" are the tired old liberal codespeak for more and higher taxes with no questions asked.

If the final NTSB report concludes that the collapse had nothing to do lack of or sloppy maintenance, will liberal Minnesota legislators have the moral courage and intellectual honesty to admit they tried to build support for their regressive agenda of higher gasoline taxes on the ruins and human loss of the I-35W bridge?

Frontrunner Mitt!

It's Mitt in Michigan!

Three-headed Monster

Tonight's Democratic debate was by all counts boring and uneventful with the mild exception of the heckler who objected to moderator questions about the race war between the Obama and Clinton camps which has dominated the news cycle this week.

Obama lost the moral high ground when he called a "truce" on what has to be the most significant public revelation of the 2008 presidential campaign so far: Democrats are fractured along racial lines.

Hillary and her minions have been attacking Obama relentlessly. Bill Clinton, Hillary's most active surrogate, has gone so far as to say that Obama's candidacy is a "fairy tale" and, just today in Sparks, NV, that "Hillary has an enormous amount of African American support and Barack Obama has a lot of white people for him."

So much for a truce on the Obama-Clinton racial war.

More Race Baiting from Hillary and Her Surrogates

Clinton, Obama Clash Over Race Issue
By Beth Fouhy

NEW YORK (AP) - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton suggested Sunday that Barack Obama's campaign had injected racial tension into the presidential contest, saying he had distorted for political gain her comments about Martin Luther King's role in the civil rights movement.

``This is an unfortunate story line the Obama campaign has pushed very successfully,'' the former first lady said in a spirited appearance on NBC's ``Meet the Press.'' ``I don't think this campaign is about gender, and I sure hope it's not about race.''

Clinton taped the show before appearances in South Carolina, whose Jan. 26 primary will be the first to include a significant representation of black voters. Blacks were 50 percent of primary voters in the state in 2004 and the number is expected to swell this time.

Both New York Sen. Clinton and her husband, the former president, have engaged in damage control this week after black leaders criticized their comments shortly before the New Hampshire primary last Tuesday.

The senator was quoted as saying King's dream of racial equality was realized only when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, while Bill Clinton said Illinois Sen. Obama was telling a ``fairy tale'' about his opposition to the Iraq war. Former President Clinton has since appeared on several black radio programs to say he was referring to Obama's record on the Iraq war, not on his effort to become the nation's first black president.

At an awards dinner Sunday in Atlanta celebrating black achievement, Michelle Obama said her husband is the person America needs in the White House right now and was critical of anyone who would ``dismiss this moment as an illusion, a fairy tale.'' He is the right candidate ``not because of the color of his skin, but because of the quality and consistency of his character,'' she said.

As evidence the Obama campaign had pushed the story, Clinton advisers pointed to a memo written by an Obama staffer compiling examples of comments by Clinton and her surrogates that could be construed as racially insensitive. The memo later surfaced on a handful of political Web sites.

Obama later called Clinton's accusations ``ludicrous,'' and said he found Clinton's comments about King to be ill-advised and unfortunate.

``If Senator Clinton wants to be distracted by the sorts of political point-scoring that was evident today then that is going to be her prerogative,'' Obama said.

Another rival, John Edwards, added his voice to the chorus of criticism of Clinton's comments about King.

``I must say I was troubled recently to see a suggestion that real change that came not through the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King but through a Washington politician. I fundamentally disagree with that,'' Edwards told more than 200 people gathered at a predominantly black Baptist church in Sumter, S.C.

Later Sunday, the Clinton campaign scrambled to explain comments by one of its top black supporters, BET founder Bob Johnson, that seemed to raise the issue of Obama's admitted teenage drug use.

``I am frankly insulted the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues - when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood; I won't say what he was doing, but he said it in his book - when they have been involved,'' Johnson said at an event with Clinton in Columbia, S.C.

In his memoir, ``Dreams from My Father,'' Obama described using marijuana and occasionally sampling cocaine as a youth. He declined to respond directly to Johnson later when asked about it.

``I'm not going to spend all my time running down the other candidates, which seems to be what Senator Clinton has been obsessed with for the last month,'' Obama said between visits to people's door steps in a Las Vegas neighborhood.

The Clinton campaign later released a statement in which Johnson said his comments referred to Obama's years as a community organizer in Chicago.

Hillary's strategy is simple: alienate Obama from Black voters. And she has gone so far as to downplay Martin Luther King's role in seeking racial equality in America to push it.

Bottoms Up! II

The Mug Shot

From The Smoking Gun:

Clinton Adviser In Drunk Driving Bust

JANUARY 12--Sidney Blumenthal, a senior Hillary Clinton campaign adviser and former White House aide to Bill Clinton, was arrested this week for drunk driving in New Hampshire, one day before the state's presidential primary. Blumenthal, 59, was popped by Nashua cops after his rented Buick was pulled over for speeding. When Blumenthal, pictured in the below Nashua Police Department mug shot, showed signs of intoxication, a cop gave him a field sobriety test, which the Clinton operative failed. Blumenthal, who declined to take a Breathalyzer test, was booked into the Nashua lockup on an aggravated DWI charge. The misdemeanor rap is considered "aggravated" because Blumenthal was speeding when his vehicle was stopped at 12:30 AM Monday. He is scheduled to be arraigned in Nashua District Court on January 31.

Sidney "Sid Vicious" Blumenthal, Bill and Hillary Clinton's most loyal brownshirt and full time professional spinmonger, is one of the dirtiest, most repulsive political operatives in history - which explains his attachment to the Clintons. He is the kind of guy you would catch rummaging through your garbage in search of damaging information. Curiously, he was a journalist before Bill Clinton invited him to become "Assistant to the President" in 1997.

When Arkansas State troopers blew the whistle on Bill Clinton's adulterous shenanigans and exposed Hillary's toxic temper, Sid Vicious did his liberal best to destroy them personally and professionally. As the Clintons' pit bull, Sid was in charge of destroying anyone who was critical of his masters' shameful, immoral and illegal behavior when they disgraced the office of President of the United States in the 1990s. It is believed that he coined the now-infamous phrase "the vast right-wing conspiracy."

Sid is now an unpaid advisor to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. His payment comes from writing columns favorable of Hillary's campaign and scathingly critical of anyone else who would get in the way of former first lady's maniacal obsession with the American presidency.

Parenthetically, drunkenness - whether documented or suspected - seems to be prevalent among liberal Democrats (a lot of the legislation produced by the majority last year seems to indicate that most of them were on the sauce either when they wrote it or voted for it). Take the Minnesota legislature, for example.

Rukavina. Accountability. Right.

Rep. Tom Rukavina (DFL-Virginia) has earned the following citation on Wikipedia:

Rukavina was arrested on July 31, 2004 for driving drunk. He was cited for fourth degree drunken driving. His blood alcohol level was 0.15. He had been an opponent of lowering the blood alcohol level from .10 to .08. The state legislature in 2004 approved lowering the level beginning August 2005.

Metzen "feeling good"

Minnesota State Senate president James Metzen (DFL-South St. Paul) was arrested for DUI in the early hours of Tuesday, May 22, 2007 just hours after gaveling the 2007 session to a close. His blood-alcohol concentration was 0.15 percent, almost twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent. Metzen was "severely" punished: 20 hours of community service, a $300 fine and one year probation. At the time, Metzen apologized to his colleagues for his "lapse in judgment." BTW, a 2004 hidden-camera exposé revealed drinking in Metzen's office.

Guess in which picture Ted Mondale is drunk. I can't either.

Ted Mondale, former state senator, DFL candidate for governor and son of former vice-president Walter Mondale, was arrested on Wednesday, May 9, 2007 on suspicion of driving under the influence. He failed a field sobriety test after refusing to take a Breathalyzer test. Mondale also refused to take a blood-alcohol test at the jail on advice of his attorney.

Obviously not Linda Pfeilsticker's mugshot. Aren't mugshots public record? I wonder why the P-B and the Winona Daily News didn't publish it ...

On December 9, 2007, state troopers fished Winona Senior High social studies teacher and Minnesota House district 28B DFL candidate Linda Pfeilsticker out of a ditch along MN Highway 60. She failed a field sobriety test and her blood-alcohol level was 0.17, over twice the legal limit of 0.8.

Republican Steve Drazkowski defeated Pfielsticker in a special election to fill Rep. Steve Sviggum's seat last summer. Sviggum held the seat for nearly 30 years before stepping down to become Commissioner of Labor and Industry.

This is a serious matter. It is disturbing that someone in Pfeilsticker's position would downplay the gravity of this incident."The overall reaction that I've gotten from people is that this is not something that you should let get in the way of [running again]," she reportedly said. "You learn from your mistakes and you move on. You take your lumps, but you learn from that," she continued. I will be watching with interest what actions, if any, her principal and the school board take from this point on.

My favorite P-B online comment on the story was that Pfeilsticker's arrest is "a great teaching tool" about "how bad it is to drink and drive and how it can ruin ones [sic] life." Let's hope Ms. Pfeilsticker's next lesson is not about how bad it is to smoke crack, beat up on grandma or run with scissors.

Drunk driving is a serious matter. People kill and get killed when they get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle while impaired by drugs or alcohol. Having a focus group with her students does not make Pfeilsticker's drinking problem go away.

Pfeilsticker is quoted as saying that she has "much better judgment than that." Well, it's patently obvious that she does not. Being fished out of a ditch by state troopers, failing a field sobriety test and having a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit are not "mistakes [that] can be made by anyone."

Pfeilsticker is blessed to be alive as are the others who were on the road at the same time she was behind the wheel of her vehicle while severely impaired by alcohol. Pfeilsticker needs to join a recovery program as soon as possible. Her DFL handlers should urge her to do so, unless they think that winning an election is more important than saving someone's life.

Misogynism, Bad. Racism, OK. Male-Bashing, Always Welcome

"Hilary is the only woman who ever made it through this far. I have decided that having a woman president before any man of any color is what these times call for. i am a feminist, and I will die one. It matters that a woman made it through. i made it through and i know the horror and the pain a woman must endure from this woman hating culture to succeed. Hilary I am proud of you. You did it for all of us, black and white, and brown. A black male president should come after your presidency. One man is as good as another, no matter their color, no matter their creed. They are all men, and the propping up of any of them is old and tired and over. It's Women's time now, and the world needs us!!"

-- Comedienne Roseanne Barr on her website following the New Hampshire primary results.


Lest you think that these are the deranged rantings of a comedian, note my previous posts on how Democrats are dealing with the race issue this election cycle. Roseanne's views are those of establishment Democrats.

Better than Walz

The Republican candidates for U.S. Congress met at the Rochester Public Library last night to show their wares. It was a good debate. Anyone of our guys is Tim Walz's better on every issue. For one thing, they give straight answers. Unlike Walz, who always speaks out of both sides of his mouth. That's the liberal congressman's idea of "bipartisanship."

Dr. Brian Davis, Rep. Randy Demmer and Sen. Dick Day

It was a very well attended affair.

Young Republican Guns: Simon (Century HS), Matt (Lourdes HS) and Ian (Mayo HS).