Quite literally in fact. This airplane has wi-fi! (It’s the little things in life that excite me.)
I’ll be spending the next few days in our nation’s capital, live-blogging, live-broadcasting, and live-tweeting the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Stay tuned…
Today Senator Even Bayh became the latest fly dropping from the liberal leftist swarm of politicians with his announcement that he would not seek reelection this November. He joins fellow Senate insects Chris Dodd, Byron Dorgan, Ted Kaufman, and Roland Burris on the I’m-sure-I-could-win-really-I-just-don’t-feel-like-running ground.
From The Wall Street Journal:
Mr. Bayh’s decision appeared to catch party leaders off guard. The senator has plenty of cash in the bank for his re-election bid, and recent polls showed him with big leads over two potential Republican challengers, including former Sen. Dan Coats, who is seeking a return to Capitol Hill. Mr. Bayh is a respected lawmaker, a former governor who has often been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate.
Mr. Bayh called Mr. Reid early Monday, a few hours before his public announcement in Indiana.
“It says something that an incumbent senator with $13 million in the bank decides to retire this late in the process,” said Jennifer Duffy, a senior editor at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. Ms. Duffy said as many as seven Democratic seats might switch hands this year, and suggested even more could be put in play if Republicans find strong candidates.
I’ll tell you what it says. It says that the government growing, tax raising, the-system-works liberals know that their goose is cooked. For those lefty politicians running in the 2010 elections, well, try not to cry too hard into your Cheerios on November 3rd.
Remember this chart? It was from the 2008 Presidential campaign. I can’t tell you how many Obama supporters calmly and patiently explained to me that I would be silly to vote for McCain over Obama because I would get a bigger tax cut under Obama. And I calmly and patiently explained to them that by taxing top earners so significantly, they’d have to cut jobs at their companies. I also pointed out that in order to fund all of Obama’s socialist pie-in-the-sky ideas, the money would have to come from somewhere, and that I was 100% certain that we’d see that $250k bar drop.
Within a couple of weeks of the inauguration, Obama raised taxes on the poorest people in our country, those who have the highest majority of smokers in their demographic. The cost increase on a pack of nicotine sticks was the highest in US history.
But lots of people don’t see that as a *real* tax, because smokers can choose to quit and probably should for their health.
But even those tobacco-taxes-aren’t-real-taxes people should be worried now. In an interview out today, President Obama said:
The whole point of it is to make sure that all ideas are on the table… So what I want to do is to be completely agnostic, in terms of solutions.
What I can’t do is to set the thing up where a whole bunch of things are off the table…Some would say we can’t look at entitlements. There are going to be some that say we can’t look at taxes, and pretty soon, you just can’t solve the problem.
The real problem has to do with the fact that there is a just a mismatch between the amount of money coming in and the amount of money going out. And that is going to require some big, tough choices that, so far, the political system has been unable to deal with.
I have a suggestion Mr. President. How about we spend less money? Why does Nancy Pelosi need $1000 per week for booze and delicacies on her private cross-country jet rides? That’s $1000 per week for food and booze, mind you, not the cost of the travel itself. And I’m sure the turtles didn’t really need a $3,400,000 tunnel to cross the road. What about the $800,000 for repaving a back-up runway at an unused airport?
President Obama, please don’t raise my taxes to fund those ridiculous projects. I don’t know how much more of your “help” I can afford.
Our VP can always be counted on to say the most insane things at the most bizarre times. He did not dissapoint last night on Larry King. Let me share with you some of the gems he dropped.
Regarding airplane attacks by Muslim extremists:
“I think what you’re seeing morphing here – and it’s a concern to us – is you’ll see the concern relates to somebody like a shoe bomber or the underpants bomber, the Christmas attack or someone just strapping a backpack on them with weapons that are indigenous and blowing up, you know, walking into in airport…I think there are going to be attempts.” Biden also insisted that the Obama administration, which ordered a review of security and terrorism procedures after the Christmas Day incident, is prepared to deal with such attempts. “I’ve been really impressed with the success we’ve had, building on the last administration, in dealing with these.”
Hmm… I feel safe now. Especially since the head of Homeland Security thinks the system works, but just in case it doesn’t, let’s steal pillows from toddlers during the last 90 minutes of all flights.
Regarding that three-letter word JOBS:
“I think now the jobs bill, I think, will be probably less than is needed initially, but it will be very helpful…by the spring, I think people are going to begin to have more confidence in the policies we’ve put in place.”
Is this the same Jobs Bill that extends unemployment benefits? Why don’t they just go ahead and call it a “don’t bother looking for work because we’re going to pay you even longer to sit at home heckling the *rich* people providing for your existence”? Too long? Bummer.
Regarding Iraq:
“I am very optimistic 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.”
So he’s optimistic about having the troops home, not about Iraq or our own national security. When the US leaves, the fledgling democracy in Iraq will most likely crumble to the extremists, and we’ll see all sorts of lovely new terrorist cells plotting the destruction of the US. Perfect.
Regarding Sarah Palin (this by far is my favorite):
“I like her…She’s an engaging person. She has a great personality. I don’t agree with what she says and I think some of the things she says are not – well…Well, you know, it’s sort of like – some of the comments made are just so far out there, I just don’t know where they come from.”
Seriously Joe? Maybe you could explain some of your comments before you go ripping into Sarah Palin for her far-out comments.
Haitian judge Bernard Saint-Vil reccommended that the 10 missionaries being held on kidnapping charges in Haiti be released, after hearing their testimony yesterday afternoon.
The controversy over these Americans in Haiti began last week when they attempted to cross the border into the Dominican Republic with children they had “rescued” from an orphanage. Only as it turns out, several of the children still had living parents. The judge also heard testimony from the parents of these children, who readily admitted that they had given their children to the missionaries hoping and praying for a better life for them.
“After listening to the families, I see the possibility that they can all be released,” Saint-Vil told The Associated Press. “I am recommending that all 10 Americans be released.”
That was Wednesday. By mid-day Thursday, Saint-Vil still had not delivered his formal recommendation to the prosecutor on the case, who could potentially appeal the ruling.
Come on Haiti. I know it’s a confusing time right now with your main city in a pile of rubble and over 217,000 people dead. But you guys have bigger problems than holding citizens from a country that has shown you nothing but compassion and generosity. Like how about taking care of the looters, murderers, and rapists roaming the streets? I know it might be difficult to differentiate between the criminals and the missionaries, but I’m sure you’ll figure it out.
Otherwise, President Obama needs to grow a pair and pull our troops and funding out of there. If Haiti wants to play by it’s own rules, that’s fine. But America doesn’t need to fund it.
Stacy Mott gives a Smart Girl Politics update, including information about CPAC, SGP101 classes, and the next generation of conservative women.
Brittany Cohan and I discuss bad parenting, bad birthers, and bad Haiti.
And cocktail time with Mike G.
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Mike Flynn, editor-in-chief of www.BigGovernment.com, and Caleb Howe, contributing editor at www.RedState.com join me to discuss the impact of new media on old media.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Afternoons are crazy in my house. Just after 2, Thing 2 will wake up screaming from her nap, if she went to sleep at all. If not, then I’ll usually rescue her from her evil crib at that time. Then we fight over what she should have for a snack. She always wants a cupcake. And I always say, “No cupcake!” At which point she collapses into a fit of sobs and tears. Eventually she’ll decide that she really does want the cheese/fruit/triscuits/other tasty wholesome snack, pick it up off the floor where’s she’s thrown it and eat it.
After that debacle, it’s usually time to go pick up Thing 1 from school and run an errand or two. Today we had to get some new tires for my truck. We went to Costco because I had some giftcards, plus you can get ice cream while you wait. Into the tire center. I know I need two at least, but think, “Hmm, do I really want to be back here in 3-6 months to replace the other two? Nope!” So I order up four new tires. The very polite service guy rattles of a price of eight hundred dollars and change. I’m not sure exactly, he lost me at eight hundred. Two new tires will be just fine thankyouverymuch. I tried not faint or choke or vomit as I forked over enough money to buy a plane ticket to Hawaii. Then I spent some time day dreaming about Hawaii.
Of course I was slammed back to reality when Thing 1 tipped over Thing 2′s stroller in the tire department at Costco.*
Thankfully there was no line, so it was only a 45 minute wait. We got some ice cream to share and I got a diet coke. I haven’t been buying it regularly any more, because I can’t find find a twelve pack for less than $5, and let’s face it: that’s extortion. I blissfully sipped my chemically caffeinated goodness while Things 1 & 2 raced to see who could eat more ice cream faster. Turns out Thing 1, although she paid for it dearly with a massive brain freeze that I refused to listen to her whine about.
New tires, sugared up children, and a broke Jenny headed home. I opened up my laptop and tweetdeck, trying to ignore the cacophony of, “I don’t want to do my homework!!!” and “Cupcake!” surrounding me. And I saw avatar pics of terminator sheep with glowing red eyes. And lots of tweets with the hashtag #demonsheep.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
So I tweeted: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is with the #demonsheep??
And I was immediately rewarded with links. I love Twitter. It satisfies my impatient nature.
The evil terminator demon sheep appear in an ad for Carly Fiorina, a sometimes fiscally conservative running for the republican nod to run against Senator Please-Don’t-Call-Me-Ma’am-Boxer in California. The ad slams an even more liberal republican than herself, Tom Campbell. And for some reason, it’s filled with demon sheep.
It made my whole day.
*No toddlers were harmed in the making of this post. Unless you consider cupcake denial to be harmful. In which case, it was torturous.
Organizing for America, which can be found at www.BarackObama.com, is “the successor organization to Obama for America, is building on the movement that elected President Obama by empowering communities across the country to bring about our agenda of change.”
On the surface, it looks good. What’s wrong with encouraging people, especially young people, to become more involved with the political process, to donate their time and talent to serve the community? Nothing, of course. Unless it’s just a tool to spread progressive propaganda like “the government knows better than you do” and “rich people are stealing from you.” On a side note, I’ll never understand why people get upset about CEOs making millions but not Kobe Bryant.
Those crazy kooks over at OFA are busy recruiting high school students in government schools to become part of the team that will transform America. To help spread the word that health care is a right, not a service, that fetus’s aren’t babies, and that bankrupting energy companies is a good idea. You know, to really be a part of sumpin’ special.
Remember, this is a partisan organization to promote liberal/socialist ideals, and they’re recruiting teenagers in their high school government classes. Not at lunch in the quad, not after school in the office, but right in the classroom. If that isn’t unsettling enough for you, wait until you check out the recommended reading list. On it is Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, a book dedicated to Satan and containing such gems as:
“The third rule of ethics of means and ends is that in war the end justifies almost any means….”
and:
And so the guided questioning goes on without anyone losing face or being left out of the decision-making. Every weakness of every proposed tactic is probed by questions…. Is this manipulation? Certainly….”
and:
“An organizer working in and for an open society is in an ideological dilemma to begin with, he does not have a fixed truth-truth to him is relative and changing; everything to him is relative and changing…. To the extent that he is free from the shackles of dogma, he can respond to the realities of the widely different situations….”
and:
“A Marxist begins with his prime truth that all evils are caused by the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. From this he logically proceeds to the revolution to end capitalism, then into the third stage of reorganization into a new social order of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and finally the last stage — the political paradise of communism.”
Unbelievable.
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