Thoughts from the health care “summit”

Just in case you were naive enough to think this was an actual solicitation of input from the opposition, this should kill your naiveté:

After a brief period of consultation following the White House health reform summit, congressional Democrats plan to begin making the case next week for a massive, Democrats-only health care plan, party strategists told POLITICO.

This story was put out while the “summit” was still going on, well before it ended. In other words, the Dems had their plans already lined up, and nothing that occurred in the “summit” was going to change that.

The Vice-Plagiarist feared that inviting the Republicans to the “summit” could “could end up being not good”.  Boy, how right he was!  It turned out to be a disaster…for the Democrat Party.

Opinions are coming in from around the punditry, but, to coin a phrase overutilized by the global “warming” cultists, the science is settled: the GOP scored a massive body blow to Obama and the Dems.  Jay Nordlinger:

This health-care summit was a bad idea for the Democrats for this reason: They have long benefited from a perception — a perception greatly abetted by the media: The Republicans don’t care about health care, they don’t know about health care, they are the Party of No. All the ideas and caring are on the Democratic side.

It is not so, and it has never been so. And now everybody knows it.

Indeed, everybody does now know it. David Gergen:

The folks in the White House just must be kicking themselves right now. They thought that coming out of Baltimore when the President went in and was mesmerizing and commanding in front of the House Republicans that he could do that again here today. That would revive health care and would change the public opinion about their health care bill and they can go on to victory. Just the opposite has happened.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer…yeah, that Wolf Blitzer:

It looks like the Republicans certainly showed up ready to play.

The Hill’s A.B. Stoddard:

I think we need to start out by acknowledging Republicans brought their ‘A Team.’ They had doctors knowledgeable about the system, they brought substance to the table, and they, I thought, expressed interest in the reform. I thought in the lecture from Senator John McCain and on the issue of transparency, I thought today the Democrats were pretty much on their knees.

Yuval Levin:

…The Republicans seem genuinely well-prepared, seem to have thought through the question of who should speak about what rather carefully, and several of them have done quite a good job making their case against the Democrats’ approach. If we were to judge by debating points, Republicans certainly won the morning handily.

Jim Geraghty:

The Democrats are offering a lot of anecdotes about Baby Jesus, Steny Hoyer’s answering machine, and the teeth of the dead. Obama is at his least persuasive; he keeps ruling GOP arguments out of bounds for one reason or another – don’t hold up a copy of the bill, don’t cite Washington because people are angry at Washington right now, don’t ask for equal time, don’t focus on where we disagree, don’t remind me of what I said as candidate. I don’t think that transforms the skeptics into supporters.

That is my biggest takeaway of the whole thing: Republicans used charts, graphs, stats, analyses, quotes…in other words, facts. Democrats used no facts, but opted instead to use anecdotes, sob stories, and tearjerkers…the things on which you do not base good public policy!

Check out the tag line under my blog title: Why think when you can feel? The Democrats have proved me right time and time again, and this time, they do so in a way that leaves no doubt. The science is settled (how’s that tasting now, lefties?): Liberals govern on feeling, not on thinking. Thinking just isn’t their forté.

Also, McCain did a great job making B.O. look like the thin-skinned, petulant brat that he is. When McCain pointed out the shadiness of the backroom deals (e.g. FL getting exempted from ObamaCare in three huge Democrat counties) and asked why they get to keep using Medicare Advantage when the rest of the country wouldn’t be able to, B.O. looked uneasy and tried throwing him a bone: “That’s a legitimate question.” A question he wasn’t going to answer, mind you, but a legitimate question nonetheless. Other points McCain made about promises that B.O. made on the campaign trail prompted B.O. to get snippy: We’re not campaigning anymore, I won, etc. In other words, to paraphrase Miles from Risky Business when asked by Joel if everything he had said was “just bull$h!t”: That was just bull$h!t, John, I’m surprised you and America listened to me!

Anywho, let’s close with some ludicrous, and laughably so, comments:

Pelosi: This isn’t a health care reform bill, as much as it is a jobs bill. ‘Cuz the bill will create four million jobs, 400k of them nearly overnight. Or something.

Tom Harkin (D-IA): Having different insurance risk pools is akin to Jim Crow laws. Or something.

Reid: No one’s talking about reconciliation. Obama: Um, I am.

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY): Here’s a sob story about a woman who was “forced” to wear her dead sister’s dentures due to lack of health insurance. Or something.

Another nugget from Slaughter: “Not nitpick, but think about all the people out there every day, the number of people that have excess deaths because they have no health insurance.” I wasn’t aware a person could have more than one death. The stuff I learn from Washington. But hey, you can’t spell “Slaughter” without “laughter”, right? 😆

American people: Hey, 59% of us want Washington to scrap the whole thing and start from scratch. Dems to American people: Screw you, Mr. and Mrs. Normal America, but we’re going to cater to the whackjob 34% who want our partisan socialist bill.

Reports say Crist will abandon GOP, run as independent

A couple of events have occurred over the last several days which have not portended well for our artificially tanned governor: (1) polls showing him trailing Marco Rubio by 18% in the GOP primary for the U.S. Senate; and (2) Crist staffers jumping off of his campaign bandwagon.

As a result, stories like this come as no surprise:

Two highly placed and independent sources, speaking strictly on background, tell me that Gov. Charlie Crist is preparing to leave the Republican Party and run as an independent in the race for the U.S. Senate.

With Crist trailing Marco Rubio by 18 points in the latest polls, the Crist campaign has been in panic mode, launching attack after attack on the conservative Rubio. 

It’s not official, but as the blog author says, ask yourself this: “do you believe it is possible that Crist will leave the Republican Party to run as an independent? You do, don’t you?”

Crist has always been a squishy Republican.  From his endorsement of John McCain in 2008 (which angered conservative Floridians when it had its intended consequences, i.e. handing McCain a FL primary win), to his ill-advised property tax reform, to his embrace of Obama and the Porkulus bill (a position he still defends unabashedly today), Crist was not well-suited to the true base of the Florida Republican Party.  Sure, had he won the primary, we would have voted for him over Obamaton Kendrick Meek.  Fortunately, now we don’t have to.

Is this bad news for us, i.e. is this a Joe Libermann 2006 situation?  Don’t know.  After all, CT Republicans voted for Joe in 2006, knowing that their guy was going to get rolled anyway, so they voted for Joe as a way to stick it to the liberal whackadoodles in their state.  Different dynamics at work here.

Is it possible that Crist could split the vote for the good guys this November? Sure.   Crist could siphon some votes that otherwise would have gone to Rubio.  On the other hand, polls show that Rubio is crushing Meek by over 20% anyway, and I don’t know if an independent Crist could attract 20% of Florida voters, especially 20% of the FL GOP base.  Besides, many thought that disgruntled Hillary voters might deprive B.O. from the presidency in 2008, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be.  I think it’s possible some folks may read too much into this.

Anywho, as of now, this is a rumor.  But admit it: it’s one you can see being true, isn’t it?

UK’s socialized medicine: horror stories

From the London Time:

Patients were routinely neglected or left “sobbing and humiliated” by staff at an NHS trust where at least 400 deaths have been linked to appalling care.

An independent inquiry found that managers at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust stopped providing safe care because they were preoccupied with government targets and cutting costs. …

Staff shortages at Stafford Hospital meant that patients went unwashed for weeks, were left without food or drink and were even unable to get to the lavatory. Some lay in soiled sheets that relatives had to take home to wash, others developed infections or had falls, occasionally fatal. Many staff did their best but the attitude of some nurses “left a lot to be desired”.
…
The report, which follows reviews by the Care Quality Commission and the Department of Health, said that “unimaginable” suffering had been caused.

Hey, I’ve got an awesome idea!  How about we let the government run our health care system the way that the Limeys are running theirs?  What could possibly go wrong, right?

Night and Day, “Democrats and 51 votes” edition

Dems (including Obama) in 2005, when they feared the GOP majority would use the “nuclear option” for judicial confirmations, can be seen in this video montage saying one thing…

BIDEN: I pray to God when the Democrats take back control we don’t make the kind of naked power grab you are doing.

Isn’t that adorable?  Democrats invoking the name of a God they regularly reject…how precious!  Well, clearly God wasn’t paying any attention to the Vice-Plagiarist, judging by their “naked power grab” today.

Dems today.

“They should stop crying about reconciliation as if it’s never been done before,” Reid said.

Following Senate Democrats’ weekly luncheon, Reid said “nothing is off the table” but that “realistically, they should stop crying about this. It’s been done 21 times before.”

Notes Ed at Hot Air:

Dianne Feinstein said on the Senate floor that “it begins with judicial nominations, next will be executive appointments, and then legislation.” Now, Democrats want to skip over the first two — which never happened — and leap right to legislation. Chuck Schumer called the 2005 suggestion to exempt judicial nominations from the filibuster as “almost a temper tantrum”; if that was the case in 2005, what does 2010 represent? A psychotic break from reality? Straitjacket time?

Flaming hypocrites.  Good thing their reign of terror is about to come to a much deserved end.

Quote of the day, “Canuck province’s premier thinks socialized medicine is awesome for you, not so much for him”

Remember the Newfoundland premier who flew to the U.S. for heart surgery?  Well, he’s got this to say about his decision to seek medical care outside of Canuckistan:

“This is my heart, it’s my health, it’s my choice.”

Ah, I see.  The choice that he would like to deprive his people of, in terms of medical care, is a choice that he was happy to make.  He could have been a little more honest about his choice, though:

“Did some checking, of course, and what was ultimately done to me, the surgery I eventually got … was not offered to me in Canada,” he said.

But it is available in his home country, a point that cardiologists fervently made last night.

“It’s his body, it’s his money, hopefully, but don’t tell us the operation cannot be done here. It can be done,” said Arvind Koshal, director of cardiac surgery at the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute in Edmonton.

Somewhat buried is this nugget:

Some of the best mitral valve surgeons are in Toronto and Montreal, he said, noting that some even use robots, commonly employed in minimally invasive surgery. The wait times for cardiac surgery in Canada are relatively short, he added, saying such surgery could have been done within weeks.

To my Canuck visitors, let me fill you in on a little secret here:  In America, we don’t have waiting periods of weeks to get seen for heart surgery.  We don’t think “weeks” is a “relatively short” period of time to wait.  We tend to think heart surgery is a big deal and stuff.  We’re kind of funny that way.

Williams does try to weasel his way out of the glaringly obvious hypocrisy:

“I have the utmost confidence in our health-care system, I certainly do,” the 60-year-old said, perched on a leather chair in his condominium in Sarasota, Fla. “It’s a bum rap for someone to turn around and say, ‘Oh, Williams does not have confidence in his own health-care system because he has to leave the province.’ “

No, it’s not a “bum rap” to come to that conclusion.  Since the surgery was available in your country, yet you did not avail yourself of the opportunity to seek it locally, one can indeed draw the logical conclusion that you sought superior medical care elsewhere.  Not that we blame you, of course.  I’d want the best care possible, too, and if that meant getting it elsewhere, then so be it.  Just don’t act like it isn’t an indictment on the Canadian health care system, because it is.

At any rate, we thank you for your business!  😆

Obama’s “reverse Midas touch”

Oprompter’s popularity is in the toilet.

So is that of his foot-in-mouth friend Harry Reid.

So is that of his party in Congress, who now stand to lose the House and possibly Senate.

His buds who ran for governor in VA and NJ, as well as the Senate in MA, all lost.

ACORN?  Exposed, and cracking up.

The next victim of being an F.O.B. (Friend of Barack)?  Unions.  Details:

Favorable views of labor unions have plummeted since 2007, amid growing public skepticism about unions’ purpose and power. Currently, 41% say they have a favorable opinion of labor unions while about as many (42%) express an unfavorable opinion. In January 2007, a clear majority (58%) had a favorable view of unions while just 31% had an unfavorable impression.

Bad things happen to people who latch onto President Training Wheels.  Amazingly enough, he still draws friends and followers like a cliff draws lemmings…and with a remarkably similar outcome.

Obama: GOP doesn’t have a health care bill, except for the ones linked right here on the White House site

Seriously, it’s as if the dude is just spewing verbal diarrhea or something.

Pictures are worth a thousand words, so let’s look, shall we?  (Hat tip to Save Jersey).

Actually, the GOP plan has been out there for months, so whenever B.O. and his minions have complained that the opposition hasn’t floated their own proposals, they know it’s a damnable lie…and their own web site proves it!  😆

Quote of the day, “Harry Reid’s cure for domestic violence” edition

I’m guessing he didn’t get this advice from his “light-skinned” friend lacking a particular “dialect”.  Details:

“I met with some people while I was home dealing with domestic abuse. It has gotten out of hand,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “Why? Men don’t have jobs.”

Reid said that the effects of joblessness on domestic violence were especially pronounced among men, because, Reid said, women tend to be less abusive.

“Women don’t have jobs either, but women aren’t abusive, most of the time,” he said.  (Presumably, men are? – Ed.)

“Men, when they’re out of work, tend to become abusive,” the majority leader added. “Our domestic crisis shelters in Nevada are jammed.”

I have friends who are out of work, but to the best of my knowledge, none of them beat their spouses.  What an #sshat!

Exit question:  Considering Reid’s poll numbers are all but guaranteeing that he will be out of work after November, does this mean Mrs. Reid needs to jam herself into a domestic crisis shelter in NV?

Rubio goes RINO hunting, has CPAC momentum behind him

Latest poll in the FL Senate Republican primary: Marco Rubio 54%, Charlie Crist 36%.

It seems that hugging Obama, embracing the stimulus, and Hispandering to illegal immigrants hasn’t endeared Crist to the GOP base.  Who knew?

By the way, Marco Rubio brought the house down at the CPAC shindig last week.  The base loves him.  I would caution anyone to get too enamoured with a politician, lest they wind up like the Obamatons where they toss sense out the window.

Be that as it may, Rubio looks like a wonderful alternative to Crist thus far, and polls show that either one of them would handily defeat Obama handmaiden Rep. Kendrick Meek in the general election.

Climate scientists withdraw claims of rising sea levels

Not only were they wrong about the planet warming (it’s not), but they were also wrong about sea levels rising.

Exit question: At what point may we stop considering them to be “experts”?

Nutjob who went kamikaze into Austin IRS center was a Commie; MSM likens him to Tea Party types

Seriously, you knew this was coming, right?

Check out the whole story at Hot Air.  In short, you’ve got Time magazine and the Washington comPost omitting the Communist parts of the moonbat’s manifesto, and instead drew an analogy with his anger and those of the Tea Partiers.

There’s just one problem with that (aside from the trivial fact that it’s not true): Tea Partiers are pretty much universal in their love and support for capitalism, and this whackadoodle acted like, to quote Allah, “capitalism is for suckers”.  So with these disparate ideologies, it’s only natural that the MSM would…um…say that they’re virtual twins?

Nope…no liberal media bias!

Democrat adviser slams Obama, Dems for being unions’ b1tches

Blue-on-blue action gets me hotter than a blind lesbian at a seafood market.  Excerpts from The Daily Caller:

Longtime Democratic strategist Pat Caddell on Wednesday blasted the Obama White House for creating “a world in which there is no dissent,” following his banishment from Colorado Democrat Andrew Romanoff’s campaign for Senate.
…
Caddell said he does not fault Romanoff, a former state House speaker, for cutting ties with him after his remarks from November — in which he called the Service Employee Union International (SEIU) “thugs” and said the goal of the environmental movement is to “deconstruct capitalism” — were made public.
…
Caddell said he is being ostracized for sounding alarms about the problem that public sector unions are posing for the Democratic party. He said he supports industrial unions but that government employee unions such as the SEIU — which is one of the Democratic party’s biggest campaign contributors — violate the raison d’etre of the party, which is to “stand up for ordinary average Americans, not money and special interests.”

“I think the public unions are going to take the country and the Democratic party down the tubes,” Caddell said. “They’re in the business of taking care of — of asking taxpayers, asking ordinary people, to pay for people who make twice as much as they make, with benefit packages they will never see, and they’re told, you may not cut those.”
…
“How are you going to tell a person who makes $40,000 that they must pay money to make sure that people keep jobs who make $80,000, roughly, and who have defined pensions that they will never see?” Caddell said. “You cannot ask ordinary Americans who have no jobs, whose pensions have been ransacked, and whose pay has been stagnant, to keep rewarding people who don’t face the same kind of conditions and risk.”

Exit question: Can anyone tells me what this guy said that was factually incorrect?  I can’t seem to find it anywhere in the story.

Biden forgets what century we live in, AP comes to his rescue

Seriously, this media bias is getting freakin’ ridiculous.  Here’s what Greasy Joe said (video at link):

I refuse to accept the notion that the United States of America is not going to lead the world economically throughout the 20th Century.

Here’s what the AP says that the Vice-Plagiarist said:

“I absolutely refuse to accept the notion that the United States of America is not going to lead the world economically throughout the 21st Century,” Biden said during remarks to supporters on the Delta campus.

He did not use the word “absolutely”, and he did not say “21st century”.  If it’s not the typical liberal media bias to which we are accustomed at work here, it’s inexcusable laziness.  Either way, it’s not favorable to the MSM and portrays them (accurately, I might add) as incompetent at their jobs.

Hat tip to Allahpundit.

Suddenly, the NYT cares about national security and sensitive information

You know, if I were a cynic, I would conclude that the only reason the Old Gray Hag obliged Obama’s request is because he’s (a) a Democrat, and (b) not George Bush.  Crazy, huh?

Here are excerpts from Newsbusters, who does a great job quoting the Hag’s 2006 defense of publishing details of the SWIFT program, a defense that rings hollow in light of today’s events:

The New York Times has apparently discovered its inner patriot. The paper decided after a request from the White House to hold off publishing key information about the war effort in Afghanistan for fear of alerting the enemy to key U.S. intelligence.

The Times and its executive editor Bill Keller, who defended the decision, have left the nation collectively uttering, “It’s about time.” Now that’s change we can believe in.

Keller told WNYC radio today that two Times reporters had a story ready to go on Thursday about the capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s top military commander in Pakistan. The paper decided to hold off on running the story until today, the date the White House requested.

The National Security Council, Keller recalled, “thought it had been a clean snatch and they were afraid once the word got out, other Taliban officials would go deeper underground or take measures to cover their tracks. So they asked us to hold off for a while.”

The paper’s decision not to compromise such vital information is admirable, and has surely aided in the fight against the Taliban in the Af-Pak region. But where was this patriotic desire to cooperate with the nation’s war effort when the Times made public the SWIFT terrorist finance tracking program (TFTP), or a host of other highly sensitive programs designed to rout the nation’s enemies?
…
So why is it that when the Bush administration asked the Times to hold off on publication – and the Times refused – the paper was defending a critical right to free speech? But when the Obama administration made the same request, the paper erred on the side of security rather than “civil liberties”?

Nope…no liberal media bias!

Top climate research scientist drops bombshell: OK, if you really want to get super technical, there is NO global warming

You’d think a stunning admission like this…

The embattled ex-head of the research center at the heart of the Climate-gate scandal dropped a bombshell over the weekend, admitting in an interview with the BBC that there has been no global warming over the past 15 years.

Phil Jones, former head of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, made a number of eye-popping statements to the BBC’s climate reporter on Sunday. Data from CRU, where Jones was the chief scientist, is key evidence behind the claim that the growth of cities (which are warmer than countryside) isn’t a factor in global warming and was cited by the U.N.’s climate science body to bolster statements about rapid global warming in recent decades.
…
Jones also allowed for the possibility that the world as a whole was warmer in medieval times than it is today — a concession that may also undermine theories that global warming is caused by man.

…would get more news coverage than just Fox News, the Washington Times, and a small blurb on CNN.  Instead, here’s been the MSM’s coverage of this major story:

(crickets chirping…)

As Newsbusters points out, while the MSM ignored the Phil Jones admission that there has been zero warming, they certainly kept themselves busy with reporting that an overweight Hollywood producer got kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight.  Priorities, priorities.

Nope…no liberal media bias!

Seriously: Why do they even pretend to be objective anymore?

Exit prediction: 2010 will go down as the year that the junk science fad known as “global warming” died a much deserved, albeit belated, death.

Desperate Dem Senators recruit Obama to campaign for them.

Sweet.

President Obama kicks off what might be called his “Save the Senate” tour this week, heading west to campaign for two embattled Democrats trailing badly against Republican challengers – including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

With high-profile Democrats already bailing out of re-election campaigns – Sen. Evan Bayh’s decision on Monday to drop out of the race in Indiana brings the number of retirees to five – Mr. Obama is putting his popularity and fundraising prowess on the line as he tries to help his party hold the majority in the Senate.

Local Republicans are salivating at the prospect of Mr. Obama dropping into town to campaign for their opponents.  (As am I. – Ed.)

With Obama’s track record of success, I’m giddier than the Kos kooks with crates full of free tie-dye shirts, granola, incense, and Reynolds wrap hats.

Biden: I wonder if that new MA Senator, who’s a veteran and military attorney, understands military matters

When he’s not busy plagiarizing quotes from other politicians, Plugs likes to pass the time questioning the knowledge of military matters of a 30-year military veteran and defense attorney of the National Guard.  From Politico:

On CBS’s “Face the Nation” last weekend, Biden shot back that he doesn’t “know whether the new senator from Massachusetts understands: When you get tried in a military tribunal, you get a lawyer, too.”

“He’s trying to give me a lesson on military law, and I didn’t think it was appropriate,” Brown told POLITICO. “And I thought he was off base when it comes to explaining to the American people that somehow I need a lesson on whether people get attorneys — of course they get attorneys. There’s a difference as to what type of attorney they’re going to get and when they’re going to get that attorney, and how are they treated, and what rights do they, in fact, get.”

Brown said he is particularly incensed by Biden’s remarks because he’s served in the Massachusetts Army National Guard for more than 30 years and is currently the Guard’s top defense attorney in New England.

“I know the military rules and regulations and procedures from A to Z,” Brown said.

Pretty sure the Vice Plagiarist can’t say that.

Maybe when Biden was getting his hair plugs, the roots went a little deep and damaged his gray matter a tad.  You know, making Biden think that Scott Brown was that other Senator from MA who doesn’t know his butt from a hole in the ground on military matters?

Biden: Hey, the surge worked awesomely, despite my predictions it wouldn’t…predictions I now deny having made

If not for the wonders of modern technology, specifically Al Gore’s invention of the Internet, Plugs may have gotten away with this.  Video here.

Here’s part of what the Vice Plagiarist said on Larry King’s Still Barely Alive:

I am very optimistic about — about Iraq. I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration. You’re going to see 90,000 American troops come marching home by the end of the summer. You’re going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government.

My head hurts.  And trust me, that’s a large noggin to be throbbing, my friends.

Evan Bayh (D-IN) to not seek re-election

This was a seat that, until about 2 – 3 weeks ago, Dems didn’t worry about having to defend this year.  Then, former Senator Dan Coats announced he would seek his old seat back, recognizing that Bayh had sold out Indiana to the national Democrats.  All of a sudden, the seat was imperiled.

In totally unrelated news, Bayh has decided not to seek re-election.  Details:

Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh will not seek re-election this year, he announce Monday, a decision that hands Republicans a prime pickup opportunity in the middle of the country.

“After all these years, my passion for service to my fellow citizens is undiminished, but my desire to do so by serving in Congress has waned,” Bayh said at a press conference in Indianapolis.

…

“My decision was not motivated by political concern,” Bayh said. “Even in the current challenging environment, I am confident in my prospects for re-election.”

Uh-huh.  His decision to support ObamaCare, which is massively unpopular back home in Indiana, cost him major points and put a huge dent in his “moderate/centrist” facade.  Coats announcing that he would challenge lap dog…er, “Blue Dog…Bayh had jack squat to do with Bayh’s decision not to run, huh?  Sorry…not buying it.  Count this as a near-lock for a GOP pickup.

Bayh-bayh!

Inaugural edition of Crush Liberalism Radio Network

 This Sunday will be the inaugural edition of Crush Liberalism on Blog Talk Radio.  Link here.

Yes, I know it’s Valentine’s Day, but I can’t think of anything more romantic than curling up with your loved one at 11:00 pm EST and listen to me rant, rave, praise, opine, etc.  OK, I can think of a bazillion things more romantic than that, but what can you do?  The show’s on at that time, and it will last for 15 minutes.  I’m keeping the first show a little short for “test drive” purposes.

Anywho, Blog Talk Radio allows for me to host the show, accept and monitor calls, etc.  The first show will be all me, but subsequent shows will allow for calls in.  Details are at the link above.  If you incur long distance charges, then call at your own peril!  😆  Due to the nature of some of my moonbat stalkers (p#ssies), their cowardly posteriors will not be given a forum on my show.  If you’d like to call into the show, here’s my screening process:

E-mail me at crushliberalism@hotmail.com and give me your handle and area code.  I don’t need your real name if you don’t want to provide it, and I don’t need your entire phone number if you don’t want to provide it.  The “switchboard” that I use will show me when a call comes in, and if I recognize the area code, then you’re in.

You don’t have to be a conservative or libertarian to call in.  But you cannot be a moonbat.  If you are and I jettison your call, feel free to not call back.  If you’re expecting me to call you back to get you on the show and the phone doesn’t ring, it’s me.

Once you’re in, we can pretty much talk about whatever you like.  Of course, as the host, I can direct the conversation wherever I like, but I’m pretty flexible.

Also, all shows are archived, so if you can’t be there “live”, you’re able to listen to it any time thereafter at your convenience.

That’s about all I can think of.  If there are any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments.  And please remember to e-mail me your area code (some of you, I already know it).  Thanks for your interest, and I look forward to getting this going!  🙂

Obama’s chief financial adviser: You know what causes business owners to hire more people? Increasing their taxes, that’s what!

How does it feel to have a functional economic illiterate advising President Ideologue on such matters as these?  From Business and Media Institute:

Obama’s chief economic adviser Larry Summers appeared Feb. 9 on the Fox Business Channel to discuss the administration’s economic agenda and defended proposed rate-hikes for those making over $250,000. “Almost all economists who studied these things have that kind of view,” he told Fox’s Liz Claman.  (Show me an economist who says that increasing the tax burden on business owners will spurn job growth and I will show you an economist who got his degree from a Cracker Jack box…or from UF.  Same diff.  😆 – Ed.)

Perplexed, Fox News contributor Gary B. Smith replied: “it’s the biggest bunch of B.S. I ever heard … this is such a political game. Larry Summers thinks everyone is Rockefeller living in their Newport, Rhode Island mansion. These are guys that are starting businesses, investing. You can’t give people business money to hire people, they have to have a reason for hiring these people and that’s because they see sales increasing or costs decreasing. You can’t just say ‘go hire these five people’ because the businesses will go ‘What for? I don’t have the demand!’”

Oh, if I had a nickel for everytime I heard a business owner say “Now that my taxes have gone up, I’ll use the monetary shortfall to…um, hire more people“, I…well, I wouldn’t have a nickel.

DHS report on Islamic terrorism omits any reference to the “Islamic” part of it

If the bloodthirsty camelhumping jihadists don’t kill us, political correctness will.  Excerpt:

Two new documents laying out the Obama administration’s defense and homeland security strategy over the next four years describe the nation’s terrorist enemies in a number of ways but fail to mention the words Islam, Islamic or Islamist.

The 108-page Quadrennial Homeland Security Review, made public last week by the Department of Homeland Security, uses the term “terrorist” a total of 66 times, “al Qaeda” five times and “violent extremism” or “extremist” 14 times. It calls on the U.S. government to “actively engage communities across the United States” to “stop the spread of violent extremism.”

I guess if there’s any silver lining, it’s that the word “terrorism” is now used instead of “man-caused disaster”, so there’s that.

Nappy Napolitano is bound and determined to keep an eye on the Tea Partier type, while ignoring the type who attacked us on Sept. 11.  (Sidebar: For those of you on the left, feel free to Google “9/11/2001” if the date doesn’t ring a bell for you.  You’re welcome.)

Congress blows $50 million of our money on a park…in the Virgin Islands

Normally, a politician jumps on pork to please the constituents back home.  In this case, there are no voters (legal, anyway) in the Virgin Islands.  Details from Moonbattery:

Where do the $trillions stolen from our future go? William La Jeunesse has tracked down $50 million to the Castle Nugent National Historic Park:

It’s in the U.S. Virgin Islands, about a thousand miles from Miami and an expensive jet ride to get there.

Two weeks ago, on a near party line vote, a huge Democratic majority in the House agreed to spend $50 million to buy the former cotton plantation on the island of St. Croix.

According to the FNC article linked within Moonbattery’s post…

“This is a beautiful and important natural and cultural resource that is in danger of being lost forever,” Virgin Island delegate, Donna Christiansen, told House colleagues in January. …

The land is currently used as a cattle ranch. It includes an estate house and two row houses where the owners kept slaves that worked on the plantation. Most of the land is owned by the Gasperi family, who bought the land in the 1950’s and approached the U.S. Government about four years ago about buying it.

“It’s beautiful, it’s lush, it’s green,” Mauro Gasperi said. “It contains a beautiful reef in front that we want to maintain as clean and as pristine as when we first bought it.”

The Gasperi family maintains it wants to sell the land to the U.S. government in order to protect it from developers. …

Um, I don’t know how to break it to these geniuses, but nothing requires the landowners to sell it to developers!  As the land owners, they kinda sorta have a smidgeon of say-so as to how the land is used.  Imbeciles.

By the way, no Republican voted for it, and all but four Dems voted for it.

Night and Day, “Obama on raising taxes on the middle class” edition

B.O. and Plugs both told us during the campaign in 2008 they wouldn’t raise taxes of any kind (cigarette, energy, income, etc.) on those making $200k $250k dollar-amount-du-jour-pulled-from-their-nether-regions, didn’t they?  Yes, they did:

Obama made a firm tax pledge during the presidential campaign, repeating it numerous times in the weeks and months leading up to Election Day: no tax increases for individuals making less than $200,000 a year or couples making less than $250,000.

“Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes,” Obama told a crowd in Dover, N.H., last year.

Even today’s story reminds people of that:

Obama repeatedly vowed during the 2008 presidential election campaign that he would not raise taxes on individuals making less than $200,000 and households earning less than $250,000 a year. When senior White House economic adviser Lawrence H. Summers and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner suggested in August that the administration might be open to going back on that pledge, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs quickly reiterated the president’s promise.

What sayeth President Training Wheels now?

President Barack Obama said he is “agnostic” about raising taxes on households making less than $250,000 as part of a broad effort to rein in the budget deficit.

Obama, in a Feb. 9 Oval Office interview, said that a presidential commission on the budget needs to consider all options for reducing the deficit, including tax increases and cuts in spending on entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

“The whole point of it is to make sure that all ideas are on the table,” the president said in the interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which will appear on newsstands Friday. “So what I want to do is to be completely agnostic, in terms of solutions.”

It’s almost as if he’s a big government statist who’d rather raise our taxes than rein in spending or something.  Actually, it’s exactly like that.

You know, if I didn’t know any better, I’d swear that B.O. is a shameless liar who will say anything to get elected and then totally ignore his own words after doping the electorate!

MSNBC tool Contessa Brewer: Hey, guess what? The northeast blizzard is caused by global “warming”

Stupid so delicious that you just want to sop it up with a biscuit.  Details:

Give credit to MS-NBC’s meteorologist, who does his best to play this one down the middle. When Contessa Brewer attempts to refute Senator Jim DeMint’s humorous Twitter entry that the snow would continue “until Al Gore cries uncle,” he gives both sides of the argument. Brewer insists that the heavy snowstorm that has frozen the mid-Atlantic region and shut down Washington DC in a deep freeze just shows that “more severe weather” proves AGW theory (via Greg Hengler)…

Both of Brewer’s fans just e-mailed me to ask that I lay off of her.

Aren’t these people brilliant?  It’s blistering hot in Rio, which means global warming, and it’s a virtual atmospheric avalanche in the northeast and mid-Atlantic, which means global “warming”.  Heck, it was mild a couple of days ago here in Jacksonville, which obviously must mean global “warming”.  The global “warming” nuts have all their bases covered, no?  (Um…no.)

Obama’s idea of job creation? Meet with Al Sharpton, of course!

Friggin’ brilliant, B.O.  Details:

President Obama will discuss jobs and the economy with black leaders tomorrow, including the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Well, sure!  I mean, if there’s anyone who knows anything about job creation, it’s…Al Sharpton?  Freddie’s Fashion Mart was unavailable for comment.

Hat tip to Gateway Pundit.

Quote of the day, “DeMint pwns Gore” edition

Tweets Jim DeMint yesterday (regarding the additional 10 to 20 inches of snow due in DC):

It’s going to keep snowing in DC until Al Gore cries “uncle”.

Heh.

Quote of the day, “Irony is lost on Chris Mattews” edition

From Hot Air:

Chris Matthews talks with Eugene Robinson and Susan Page about Sarah Palin’s speech and hyperventilates about “secession”, which is where Robinson picks this up, attempting to keep up with Matthews’ paranoia. At the end, Matthews actually warns Robinson that “Charismatic leaders have done this country and this world a lot of harm,” apparently oblivious to his own track record over the last two years in being Barack Obama’s number-one fanboy.

Seriously…did Leg Tingles just lecture anyone on the dangers of charming leaders with charisma?

Here’s guessing that both of Matthews’ viewers got a “thrill down their leg” listening to Matthews get slapped by irony and not even noticing.

Murtha dead at 77

Details here.

I’m not going to wax eloquent about the guy, now or anytime in the foreseeable future.  However, I would be less than a compassionate human being if I didn’t wish the best for his family and friends.  May they turn to God for strength and comfort in this dark season of theirs.

Quote of the day, “Why the MSM is failing” edition

Andrew Breitbart with a word of advice for the dinosaur media and why it’s dying:

It’s not your business model that sucks, it’s you that sucks.

Heh.