Midweek news bytes

The One’s promises should come with expiration dates, because he is once again leaning towards breaking his “no one under $250k will pay any new taxes of any kind” line.  It appears that a national sales tax is being considered.  Not like the Fair Tax, which would replace the income tax with a retail sales tax.  No, this “value-added” sales tax would be in addition to the federal income tax!  Hey, socialism doesn’t pay for itself, folks!  Exit question: how crazy do those tea party people look now, MSM?

In what amounts to a huge coinkidink, all of the closed Chrysler dealerships (so ordered by the administration…er, Chrysler) just so happened to be Republican-owned dealerships, while Dem dealerships owned by big donors just so happened to be left open to operate.  Heck, even 5-star money-making dealerships were closed, if the owner happened to be Republican.  But I’m sure B.O. isn’t a petty “I won” Chicago-style thug politician or anything!  Are you liberals content with that kind of shameful corruption, so long as it comes from your boy?

Arlen Specter (D-PA) left the GOP because he didn’t want to be defeated in the GOP primary, which he would have.  So in a delicious exhibition of karma, he finds himself with a Democrat primary challenger!  Heck, I’m almost tempted to send in a donation to a liberal for once in my life!  😆

It looks like Roland Burris did buy that Senate seat from the impeached Democrat governor from IL.  If Burris survives until the 2010 election, the GOP will actually do the unthinkable: pick up a Senate seat…and in a blue state, no less!  I doubt the Dems will let Burris get that far.

Oprompter’s SCOTUS nominee ruled recently, along with her appealate court colleagues, that New Haven, CT, can discriminate against white firefighters.  The SCOTUS will hear the appeal and rule on it by the end of their term, and possibly before her confirmation hearing.  If she has her ruling overturned, will it hurt her confirmation process?  After all, there are some red-state Dems in the Senate (both Senators from AR, MT, ND, as well as Senators from NE, LA, and SD) who will have to answer to their constituents on why they voted to confirm a racist anti-Second Amendment leftist ideologue to the court.

MD raised tax rates on millionaires.  In a totally unforseen development, the rich said “Enough!” and got the hell out of MD, leaving MD with a shortfall that only an economic illiterate wouldn’t see coming.  Hey, who knew?  (For those of you on the left, the prior sentence was both rhetorical and sarcastic.)

Bill “Just Some Dude In My Neighborhood” Ayers ghost wrote B.O.’s Dreams From My Father.  What an honor!  It’s not everyday you can get a domestic terrorist to pen your bestseller, right?

Blagojevich appoints Obama’s replacement

This whole Blago fiasco is more entertaining than chaining Barney Frank to a church altar.  Here’s the latest:

Blago, exercising his constitutional duty, has picked O’s Senate replacement: former IL AG Roland Burris.  Hey, nothing says “I’m innocent of these corruption charges” quite like picking a donor and political crony to fill this “golden” seat, right?

Harry Reid says the appointment ain’t happening.  Since Burris is black, how quick will the left accuse Reid of being racist?  Don’t hold your breath on that one, folks.  Anywho, Reid is probably out of luck on this one, but the legal wranglings could provide for some comedy gold.

Obama’s new AG “forgets” ties to Blago

I’m sure it’s just a big ol’ coinkidink.  From Chicagoland:

Before Eric Holder was President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to be attorney general, he was Gov. Blagojevich’s pick to sort out a mess involving Illinois’ long-dormant casino license.

Blagojevich and Holder appeared together at a March 24, 2004, news conference to announce Holder’s role as “special investigator to the Illinois Gaming Board” — a post that was to pay Holder and his Washington, D.C. law firm up to $300,000.

Holder, however, omitted that event from his 47-page response to a Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire made public this week — an oversight he plans to correct after a Chicago Sun-Times inquiry, Obama’s transition team indicated late Tuesday.
…
Holder signed the questionnaire on Sunday — five days after Blagojevich’s arrest for allegedly putting Obama’s U.S. Senate seat up for sale. The Judiciary Committee asked him to provide lists and “copies of transcripts or tape recordings of all speeches or talks delivered by you” and “all interviews you have given to newspapers, magazines or other publications.”

OK, just to make sure I’m understanding this right:

Holder was to get paid $300k for some work for Blagodonuts.  Holder turned in a questionnaire to the Senate Judiciary Committee after Blago’s arrest last week, but miracle of all miracles and mother of all coincidences, he just so happened to forget his presser with Blago to include on his SJC questionnaire that he was required to disclose.  I mean, with all this publicity surrounding Blago, we are to believe that Holder did not recall his public speech (you know, that thing the SJC requested a report of?) with the man?

I’m not buying it.  And for good reason:

The March 2004 Chicago news conference where Holder and Blagojevich spoke was widely covered because of a controversial 4-1 Gaming Board vote earlier that month to allow a casino to be built in Rosemont. That vote defied the recommendation of the board’s staff, which had raised concerns about alleged organized-crime links to the Rosemont casino’s developer.

Besides that, the Gaming Board’s staff had been concerned that the governor had named his close friend and fund-raiser, Christopher G. Kelly, as a “special government agent” to be involved in official state negotiations about the casino. Kelly, the Sun-Times later learned, was a business partner of Tony Rezko, another Blagojevich fund-raiser who had held an option to lease a hotel site next to the proposed casino site in Rosemont.
…
In an interview Tuesday, the Gaming Board’s chief investigator in 2004 said the timing of Blagojevich’s appointment of Holder raised the staff’s suspicions.

“The concern was Holder had a bias to do whatever Blagojevich wanted, which was to give the casino to Rosemont,” said Jim Wagner, who was a top Chicago FBI agent before he joined the Gaming Board, from which he retired in December 2005. “We all believed the only reason Holder was coming in was to fashion an investigation that would manipulate the casino into Rosemont.”

Wagner also said the matter should be explored by the Senate Judiciary Committee. “It ought be brought up and vetted totally as to what motivated him to leave it off” the questionnaire, Wagner said. …

Hope, and change.  Or something.

Quote of the day, “Obama’s evolving Blago stories” edition

From Ace:

Suffice to say his former claim was not just a lie but an absurd one, and an unnecessary one (why wouldn’t he advise the governor on his replacement?).

And also, an arrogant one. It’s the sort of lie you tell when you think, mostly accurately, the press will let you get away with claiming anything.

One good thing for Republicans: Obama is a moronic liar. Clinton was a good liar (much to our annoyance). This cat is a retarded one. That will be helpful.
…
You can just see the Obama pattern unfolding with the Senate seat fixing scandal.
1. I don’t know him
2. I know him a little
3. I know him but I thought he’d gone to rehab
4. I’m giving a major speech condemning everything he stands for

It depends on the meaning of the word “know”, right?

MSM settles on Blago meme: He’s nuts

The MSM is circling the wagons around Uhhhh-bama with regards to the corrupt Democrat governor of IL, Rod Blagojevich.  The story (and they’re sticking to it) is that Blago is crazy.  These stories are popping up everywhere, and Ace knows why:

The Democratic Party can’t be held responsible for Blago’s actions if even Blago himself isn’t responsible.

He’s just nuts, you see. And so’s his wife, his chief of staff, his advisers, his fundraisers, his patrons, and the Jackson family too.

If he’s literally crazy, obviously his actions cannot reflect on his fellow Democrats or fellow Chicago machine politicians such as Barack Obama.

There must be some kind of “nutso virus” living in the air ducts in the IL governor’s mansion, then, because this has been happening with IL governors for quite some time.  Were they ALL crazy?

By the way, Newsbusters documents how “Meet The Press” host David Greogry and his sycophant guests were defending the “insane” IL governor’s actions as just “part of the system” and “how the world works.”  No word yet as to what caused the about face from their obsession and disgust with the “Republican culture of corruption” merely two years ago.  Nope…no liberal media bias!

Reason #4,154 that McCain losing wasn’t such a bad thing

The man continues crapping on the base.  From ABC News:

…McCain suggested the Republican National Committee’s calls for the Obama team to publicly release their conversations with Blagojevich and his people aren’t helpful.

“With all due respect to the Republican National Committee, we should try to be working constructively together,” McCain said.

Yes, indeed…the Blago mess is the GOP’s fault.  Notes DrewM:

I thought McCain rewrote the 1st Amendment because we had to worry about the “appearance of corruption”. Yet now that we have actual corruption on the part of a sitting governor, we must not ask any questions of Obama but rather just sit and wait for Him to tell us what He thinks we need to know.

Hopefully the party learned a lesson this year about letting buttmunches like Juanny Mac become standard bearers.  Knowing the GOP, though, they have probably learned no such lesson.

Exit prediction: Now that the Obamessiah has been safely ascended to the throne to sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty elected, the MSM will go back to liking McLame.

Wolf Blitzer glosses over Blagojevich scandal

The “objective” Wolf Blitzer on that “unbiased” CNN network observed thusly:

On Tuesday’s Situation Room, CNN host Wolf Blitzer tried to downplay the significance of the arrest of the Democratic governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich by making an unequivocal statement about Republicans: “You know, most of the scandals — most of the political scandals…in recent years have involved Republicans…and they’re all pretty well-known.” He continued by labeling the Democrat’s apprehension a “huge embarrassment.”

Blitzer made the remark to Karen Finney, the communications director for the Democratic National Committee, during the regular “Strategy Session” segment. Finney appeared with Republican strategist John Feehery, and the three discussed the political implications of Blagojevich’s arrest. Besides this most recent development, the CNN host only mentioned the recent defeat of Louisiana Representative William Jefferson as an example of a political scandal involving a Democrat.

Some names must have slipped the dude’s mind:

Both Blitzer and Finney need to be reminded that there have been plenty of scandals involving Democrats in recent years as well. Do the names Eliot Spitzer, Kwame Kilpatrick, John Edwards, and Tim Mahoney ring any bells in their minds? The political careers of all four Democrats suffered due to revelations of sexual impropriety, which all occurred in the past year. One only need to go back a little further to find a few more Democratic names involved in scandal, such as Bill Clinton and Gary Condit.

There’s plenty more, but this is just recent history.  But where have I heard the name “Tim Mahoney” from?  Well, I doubt I heard it from CNN or the other networks who went to down on Mahoney’s predecessor, Mark Foley.

Nope…no liberal media bias!

UPDATE: News bits about the IL Democrat governor arrest

As many of you know, the Dem governor of IL and FOB (Friend of Barack), Rod Blagojevich, was busted by the feds for massive corruption.  He was trying to sell Obama’s soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat, plus he attempted to bribe the parent company of the Chicago Tribune to fire editors/reporters who were critical of him, plus…well here, read the laundry list for yourself.

In other words, typical Chicago (and Illinois) politics…dirty as usual.

UPDATES BELOW.

Predictably, the Obamessiah came along to make room under his bus for Ol’ Rod.  He said nothing of substance, other than the “This is not the Rod Blog…Blago…Bagodonuts…whatever his name is that I thought I knew.”  Barry O says he hasn’t been in contact with Blagojevich.  Barry O’s spokesman said that’s not quite true.  O cracks the whip, and Axelrod retreated like a French soldier.  John Dickerson thinks Uhhh-bama’s answer was “underwhelming” and “unconvincing”, to say the least.

Let’s see: Dude hires a bunch of Clintonistas to run his “new” administration, and he is beset by corrupt associates before he has even taken office yet…this isn’t “Change”, Obaminions, it’s the Clinton Administration Part II.

UPDATE (12/10/2008 – 1:35 P.M. EST):  Yep, Big O and Blag-o met to talk about the Senate seat vacancy.  Must have slipped O’s mind.  Years of drug abuse will do that, I suppose.

UPDATE (12/11/2008 – 8:10 A.M. EST):  Quoth The One two days ago:  “I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening.”  Which is why Big O and Blag-o were pressing the flesh just last Tuesday.  Why, if I didn’t know any better, I’d swear that the Obamaliar was being a little “less than truthful”!

Notes Ace:

It is unlikely in the extreme that Obama plotted corruptly with Blago shortly after having been elected president. That’s not the way the favor bank works, after all. The guy with more power doesn’t need the guy with less power very much.

It does however underscore Obama’s breathless dishonesty on his contacts with his various criminal associates — he simply makes s##t up out of whole cloth. He just doesn’t care that there is a factual record to rebut his lies– he knows the Obamamedia won’t call him out.