Lee Doren – Arguing With Idiots

Poor Lee Doren.

As the Communications Coordinator for CEI, he’s doing his best to argue conservative principles on his YouTube channel, How The World Works, but his videos are being inundated by  trolls – really, really dumb ones. He doesn’t quite know what to make of it:

 

 

Homeless Man With Great Voice Looks For Voiceover Job

A man who once dreamed of going into radio let drugs and alcohol alter the course of his life. Now, he’s clean, but homeless, and looking for a job in Columbus Ohio:

Watch:

One of the videos on YouTube has more than 4,000,000 views, and updates are showing that job offers are pouring in.

MyFox dfw reports:

A homeless man with a polished broadcasting voice was showcasing his unexpected talent on a radio station in Columbus, Ohio, Wednesday morning — with a possible job offer as a result.

Ted Williams, 71 (I’m questioning that!) – who begs with a sign saying he has a God-given gift of a great voice — became an internet hit after a reporter from the Columbus Dispatch filmed him demonstrating his skill.

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Media outlets have already begun expressing an interest in Williams’ offer, including WNCI’s morning radio show Dave and Jimmy, who organized a Wednesday morning interview slot for the burgeoning internet star.

Announcing the interview on their Facebook page, Dave and Jimmy wrote, “The homeless man with the awesome voice will be in our studio at 7:15am tomorrow [Wednesday]. We’re going to find some way to help this guy!”

According to Dave and Jimmy’s latest FB post, the interview went well:

Today was the most gratifying show we’ve ever done.

I’m very happy for Williams – I think he’s going to be set for life.

After all, everyone deserves a second chance.

Hat tip: NRO

Ornery Repubs Talking Smack In Washington

We’re only five days into 2011, and I’m already hearing what I think will turn out to be some of the best quotes of the year from Republicans.

Boehner responded to top Dems in the Senate, who sent him a terse message on Monday, warning him not to bother with repealing ObamaCare:

Democrats said repeal would threaten the consumer protections included in the healthcare package, including the provision that eliminates the so-called “doughnut hole” in seniors’ Medicare drug coverage.

“If House Republicans move forward with a repeal of the healthcare law that threatens consumer benefits like the ‘donut hole’ fix, we will block it in the Senate. This proposal deserves a chance to work. It is too important to be treated as collateral damage in a partisan mission to repeal health care,” wrote Reid, Majority Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), Democratic Vice Chairman Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Conference Secretary Patty Murray (Wash.) and Policy Committee Vice Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (Mich.).

Boehner wrote back:

Senators Reid, Durbin, Schumer, Murray and Stabenow:

Thank you for reminding us – and the American people – of the backroom deal that you struck behind closed doors with ‘Big Pharma,’ resulting in bigger profits for the drug companies, and higher prescription drug costs for 33 million seniors enrolled in Medicare Part D, at a cost to the taxpayers of $42.6 billion.

The House is going to pass legislation to repeal that now. You’re welcome.

- Speaker-Designate John Boehner’s Press Office

Niiiiice.

In an interview with The Hill, GOP Rep. Peter King dropped these gems about his hometown newspaper:

“The New York Times is just basically being a mouthpiece for political correctness…”

***

“I’m certainly not going to take any political advice or direction from The New York Times,”King told The Hill.” “I Have More Contempt for The New York Times Than Anything or Anyone I Can Think of”…

Tell us how you really feel, Congressman.

Via Gateway Pundit, Rep-Elect Allen West talking to Chris Wallace on FOX News Sunday:

“This liberal progressive agenda is the antithesis of who we are as a nation.”

He was also quoted as saying earlier, “That this liberal, progressive, socialist agenda… This left-wing, vile, vicious, despicable machine that’s out there is soundly brought to its knees.

Not a man to mince words… like I’ve said  before -  West is going to be fun to watch these next few years.

I have to say, I like what I’m seeing from Republicans thus far.

Linked by Michelle Malkin in Buzzworthy, and Doug Ross in Larwyn’s Links

Tuesday Link-Around

 

(photo credit AP)

The most unpopular leader in Congress, (the one who said we needed to pass the bill to find out what’s in it), has weighed in on the Republican Repeal effort:

Leading House Democrats wasted no time this week slamming a Republican proposal to repeal the new healthcare reform law, accusing GOP leaders of putting politics and industry interests above the economy.

“As we begin the 112th Congress, the number one priority of House Democrats will continue to be putting Americans to work,” incoming-Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement late Monday. “Instead of joining Democrats in our efforts for job creation, Republicans are planning to put insurance companies back in charge by repealing patient’s rights.”

Yes, well - I think the Dems’ efforts at job creation got a vote of no confidence on November 2nd, madam. It’s time to give the Republicans a turn. Repeal is a good first step in protecting American businesses. ObamaCare is a job killer.

By the way, it’s not the Government’s job to “create” jobs.

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DrewM at AoSHQ: Justice Scalia: No, The Constitution Doesn’t Protect Chicks And Gays Just Because They Are Chicks And Gays

Behold the awesome that is Antonin Scalia!

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Hey- well, Drew did predict that lib Heads would explode…

Prof. Jacobson: More Dumbed-Down Talk About The Constitution From A You-Know-Who

More dumbed-down talk about the Constitution from Tea Parties liberal columnists, this time Amanda Terkel (formerly of Think Progress) writing at HuffPo with the headline:

Scalia: Women Don’t Have Constitutional Protection Against Discrimination Gee, Scalia must hate women.

Andrew McCarthy says: Congress Must Lead, Not the Courts:

Congressional leadership would thus be wise to remember that, in our free society, there is only one branch of government capable of legitimate, dramatic course corrections: the one composed of the people’s representatives. They have to act, not just go with the Potomac flow.

There is reason to worry that leadership has instead caught a case of “let the courts do it.” Take Rep. Fred Upton (R., Mich.). Despite considerable conservative grumbling, Mr. Upton has been installed by Speaker-in-waiting John Boehner as the new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. If the Obama administration’s job-killing war on industry is to be tamed, that committee will have to be smart and aggressive. The chairman-to-be is not exactly off to a flying start. In a Wall Street Journalop-ed last week (co-authored with Tim Phillips of Americans for Prosperity), he proposed that Congress sit on the sidelines for a couple of years, trusting federal judges to handle the taming.

Keep reading.

Ace: Boehner’s First Act Upon Taking Power: Give Up Some of His Power

A note to Republicans: Please don’t earn your reputation for “the stupid party”. We can no longer afford to be the stupid party.

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NOT GOOD. Hot Air reports: Walpin loses appeal:

A three-judge panel on the DC circuit Court of Appeals has rejected an appeal by fired Inspector General Gerald Walpin that aimed to force the Obama administration to give him back his job.  Byron York reports that the panel unanimously ruled that Walpin’s firing did not violate the laws enacted by Congress, and that the retroactive 30-day notice met the conditions for termination:

Apparently, in Obamerica,  IGs can be targeted for political retribution, their inconvenient investigations terminated with abandon.

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Chris Queen at NewsReal Blog: A Top 10 Of The Left’s Most Ridiculous Moments Last Year

Whether they’re turning a scandal into a circus, passing unpopular legislation, whitewashing their own or someone else’s history, living it up on the taxpayers’ dime, or revealing their own ignorance and insanity, Leftists engage in more ridiculous behavior than ever before. It’s hard to believe their constituents continue to let them get away with it, but they do.

This past year was a banner year for Leftist atrociousness, and before we consign 2010 to the dustbin of history, here’s a special year-end look at ten of the Left’s most ridiculous moments of the year. These moments are guaranteed to make you laugh uproariously or grumble in anger — or both. Regardless of your reaction, I’m certain you won’t soon forget these episodes.

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Doug Ross:Media Matters Says I Owe Them $1,400 in gold.

In response to an Olbermann “Tourettes-like attack”, accusing Fox News of being “100% bulls***”, Ross challenged to left to cite just one lie that Fox News has told:

There are only a few simple rules — like providing a link to a transcript or video on a trustworthy site. Even so, amidst the hundreds of responses I received from outraged progressives, only a handful of budding Marxists even figured out how to post an entry that conforms to the rules.

Well, with nothing better to do during the day than respond to bloggers’ challenges, Media Matters took a shot at the gold.

Let me guess – a Media Matters “senior fellow” lies to prove his contention that Fox News lied, and their braindead readers buy the bull. Am I close?

***

A  thoroughly enjoyable piece of writing from “David Kahane”: I Hate You, Bristol Palin:

But while you’re banging away at the wildlife population and then popping their remains in a pot for dinner, you’ve bequeathed us Bristol, little miss Dancing with the Stars and now the proud owner of some choice Arizona real estate, to carry on the family tradition of driving us nuts.

Listen to me: It’s just not right that you Palins are using the trash culture we’ve so lovingly created against us — that was meant to inflict Britney Spears on your wingnut families, not to blast us with Bristol. Teenaged unwed mother? Check. Tabloid fodder? Check. Famous for being famous? Check. Normally, we would endorse all those things, just as, in a rational world, we would embrace Mama Grizzly for her “compelling personal narrative,” as the Finemans of the media like to call it.

But, of course, we don’t. Because we can’t. Because to do so would mean the end of our carefully maintained double standard — and the minute you folks on the right no longer accept your second-class status in the moral pecking order, we are finished.

Keep reading at NRO.

Check back more to come.

Powerline: John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi — compare and contrast

Boehner invited his 11 siblings to Washington? Awwww. Let the weeping begin!

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At Big Peace, Peter Schweizer asks: Is Barack Obama Intentionally Trying to Damage Our Economy and Security?

That may seem like an absurd question, but it’s hard to come to any other conclusion when you consider what is happening to our energy industry on the Gulf Coast.  As the Wall Street Journal reports today,  the Obama Administration may have lifted its ban on drilling in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico,  but there are still long delays in getting other permits approved to drill for oil.  Why?  No one seems to know.  We assume that politicians do what is in their own self-interest, but in this case Obama seems to be damaging himself because he is dragging down the economy.  As the Journal puts it, “The Gulf coast economy has been hit hard by the slowdown in drilling activity.”  And Obama doesn’t seem particularly eager to change that fact.

There are only a handful of possible explanations of why he is doing this.  (1) He doesn’t care,  and his radical environmental agenda comes first. (2) He hates oil companies so much that he’s willing to have his political fortunes damaged further by dragging down the economy. (3) He hates capitalism so much that he’s determined to “gut” a leading industry such as energy. (4)  There is raging incompetence in Washington.

John Hinderaker at Powerline gives Obama the benefit of the doubt and votes for #4.

I say all of the above, keeping in mind…

PrestoPundit (12/2008): WHO IS BARACK OBAMA? LET ME TELL YOU:

4. Obama’s relatives on his mother’s side come out of a natural resource extraction business, the oil business in Kansas.  And when Obama came of consciousness his step-father also worked in an extraction business.  Oil again.  Early in his life Obama, growing in Third World Indonesia with something of a Third World Indonesian’s world view, Obama seems to have equated capitalism and the inequality of capitalism with the wealth disparity created by unequal control of the wealth from oil. We know that Obama’s mother was hostile toward Americans in the business of oil, and both his grandmother and grandfather seemed hostile to or alienated from the values of oil patch Kansas.  If oil = capitalism, we get a better sense of Obama’s life long commitment to socialism and sharing the wealth.

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Ann Leary at PotLuck Bloggers: Shorting Stay at Home Moms on Credit

The Credit Card Act was supposed to rein in eeeevil financial institutions. Now that the Federal Reserve is proposing rules based on the legislation mandating consideration of independent income rather than household income as has been the norm, stay at home moms may have to have their spouses co-sign their card applications

Van Helsing at RWN: Obama Plans Massive Land Grab

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Everyone’s asking – whatever happened to Dede Scozzafava?

Okay, nobody asked, but Michelle Malkin has the answer, anyway: Dede Scozzafava goes to work…for Andrew Cuomo

Wasn’t she supposed to be a Republican?….

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Dana Loesch at Big Journalism: The 10 Most Underreported Stories for 2010

Republicans On “Fool’s Errand”, Choose To “Relitigate The Past”; Vote To Repeal ObamaCare Scheduled For Next Week

Dem Socialists and their allies in the media, are doing their best to discourage Republicans from pursuing a vote on ObamaCare’s repeal.

MSNBC’s Daily Rundown host, Chuck Todd, mimicking Obama’s words from November 3rd, asked Republican guests, “Will the first month of a Republican-led House be known for relitigating the past, pushing for repeal of health care, focus on investigation?”

CBS’s Harry Smith, filling in for Bob Schieffer on Sunday’s Face the Nation, called Republican efforts to repeal ObamaCare “a fool’s errand…it will face a certain veto. Is it worth the effort to try to do?”

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The message to John Boehner from top Senate Dems is, “Don’t bother”.

The 112th Congress doesn’t begin until Wednesday, but Senate Democrats are already vowing to block any attempts by the new GOP-led House to repeal the healthcare reform law.

The Senate’s top Democrats, led by Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.), wrote incoming House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Monday warning the new GOP House against advancing legislation that would undo the sweeping healthcare overhaul.

“The incoming House Republican majority that you lead has made the repeal of the federal health care law one of its chief goals. We urge you to consider the unintended consequences that the law’s repeal would have on a number of popular consumer protections that help middle class Americans,” the Democrats said.

Yes, ObamaCare is so popular, the Dems ran away from it all last year, and the  massacre that ensued at the ballot box last November can be tied directly to their roles in passing the toxic bill.  The “past” that the President and Chuck Todd refer to, is the shabby way that Democrats shoved the unpopular bill, (one that effects 1/6th of the economy!) down an unwilling nation’s throat. The consequences of repeal would be very much intended. I daresay we’re up for some relitigatin’.

Via Politico:

The House will vote next week to repeal the new health care law, making good on a top-tier GOP campaign promise and setting up a showdown with President Barack Obama over his signature domestic policy achievement.

Majority Leader-elect Eric Cantor (R-Va.) announced Monday the timeline for considering the repeal legislation: The bill will post on the Rules Committee website Monday night, the Rules Committee will meet Thursday, and the rule for the debate will be considered on the House floor Friday. The repeal vote will follow on Wednesday, Jan 12.

“Obamacare is a job killer for businesses small and large, and the top priority for House Republicans is going to be to cut spending and grow the economy and jobs,” Cantor spokesman Brad Dayspring said in a statement. “Further, Obamacare failed to lower costs as the president promised that it would and does not allow people to keep the care they currently have if they like it. That is why the House will repeal it next week.”

Congressman Upton is sounding optimistic:

Fred Upton (R-MI) told Fox News that House Republicans have enough votes to Repeal the Health Care law.

Said Upton: “As part of our pledge we said that we would bring up a vote to Repeal Health Care early. That will happen before the president’s State of the Union address. We have 242 Republicans. There will be a significant number of Democrats, I think, that will join us. You will remember when that vote passed in the House, last March; it only passed by seven votes.”

Although it’s true that repeal faces a tough vote in the Senate, and a certain veto from the President, it puts Dems on the defensive for their support of the unpopular bill.

Another trick, Republicans have up their sleeves is starving the beast:

Rep. Steve King (R.-Iowa) says that House Republicans should include language that prohibits any funding for implementation of Obamacare in literally every appropriations bill that passes the House of Representatives this year, thus forcing a showdown on the issue with the Democratic majority Senate and President Barack Obama.

“Somebody’s going to blink,” King told CNSNews.com. “It’ll be President Obama or it’ll be House Republicans.

“If House Republicans refuse to blink, we will succeed,” said King in videotaped interview. “ObamaCare will never become the effective law of the land and we’ll be able to leave a legacy of liberty for the future generations.”

You can read the entire interview, and/or watch the video at CNSNews.

RELATED:

PJ Salvatore at Big Journalism is curious about something:

The new liberal talking point appears to be that the term “ObamaCare” is really meant as a derogatory, partisan attack word. If that’s true, then why did the Obama Administration buy GoogleAds directing “ObamaCare” search traffic to the government’s health care web site?

Might want to rethink that talking point, eh chumps?

See also:

Michelle Malkin: Obamacare repeal document drop: Waiver-mania for all!

Heh. Doug Ross reacts to the dictator Senate Dems: “I may have missed this part of Schoolhouse Rock, but I didn’t think the Senate could tell the House what to do.”

Linked by Michelle Malkin In Buzzworthy, and iOWNTHEWORLD, thanks!

Video: Lots of Lefties Calling For Revolution

Anyone else noticing a trend? “Moderate” Barack Obama isn’t effecting “change” fast enough… so we’re seeing one leftist after another pitting the “haves” and  “have-nots” against each other, encouraging the have-nots to rise up and riot in the streets:

This compilation was created by Naked Emperor News‘ Pam Key for The Blaze.

Here’s one she missed:

Lefty elites are not pacifists at all…they believe in violence and bloodshed as long as it’s the dregs of society doing their dirty work… as they watch from the sidelines.

RELATED:

A good VDH post on the tendency of the left to blame all of their failed policies on everyone but themselves, at PJ Media: Raging Against “Them”

What strikes me is not that leftism does not work, but that when it is indulged and doesn’t work, its beneficiaries scream at the unfairness of it all—in the fashion that a theorist who claimed 2 plus 2 equals 5 blames the construct of mathematics because his equation is not true. Why don’t Germans just give Greeks the hundreds of billions of euros that they “owe” them?

MORE:

If you haven’t had a chance to watch the History Channel documentary, Joseph Stalin, Man of Steel, it would really be worth your time.  It’s a powerful reminder of how Stalin’s attempt to achieve a Utopian society based on fairness and equality didn’t end well for tens of millions of Russians. Of course, as lefties will tell you – Communism just hasn’t been done right, yet.

Here’s Part One:

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Hat tip: 7Heavens

Linked by The American Thinker, thanks!

It begins…An Attempt To Normalize Communism

Russian TV covers the growing Marxist movement in America – it’s not often that a media outlet calls “progressives” what they really are, as RT America does, here.

Just don’t call them, “unpatriotic”…..

A second video at Breitbart TV deals with the claim that Americans support “redistribution of wealth”.

“Communism is more popular now than in past decades…”

Hat tip: Big Government

Linked by Michelle Malkin, and Doug Ross, thanks!

UPDATE:

Da TechGuy weighs in: Normalizing Communism Deb is only slightly off, making the point that elites have been lurching leftward for decades:

It hasn’t “begun” it has been going on for years.

It went on in the 60′s when college students found that they would not longer get the exemptions that the less fortunate had, joining with Marxists and Jane Fonda aiding enemies and directly leading to the death of millions in southeast Asia

It went on in the 70′s as Colleges veered left preaching moral equivalence between the Soviets and the US

It went on in the 80′s when pols like VP Biden and the late Ted Kennedy backed by the media opposed Reagan tooth and nail as he called the Soviet Union what it was and contained and rolled back communism in our own hemisphere.

We had a brief break in the 90′s as the soviets finally collapsed freeing hundreds of millions (while pols who had supported them and academics who considered them superior suddenly claimed they had been against them or expecting this all the time) but the green movement took over trying to advance the same Red system with a green veneer while ignoring the lack of “Green” in places like China and appeasing North Korea.

But I was talking about normalizing the “C” word, Communism, not leftist policies. How many leftists  through the years (other than Bill Ayers and Bernie Sanders) have been honest and upfront about what they were? How many referred to themselves as Socialists/Communists/Marxists? Very few. Progressives, (Democrat Socialists, Communists) operate by stealth. They, historically, have not been open about who they are, choosing instead, to implement their Socialist policies incrementally, creating new entitlements conservative  legislators find difficult to wean people off of, later on.

Stanley Kurtz wrote about the  Socialist network Obama belonged to in Chicago, in his book, Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism.:

A little-known Chicago training institute for community organizers, the Midwest Academy, is in many ways the key to Barack Obama’s political rise. The Midwest Academy was closely allied to the DSA, which sponsored the Socialist Scholars conferences in New York. Most Midwest Academy leaders remained quiet about their socialism. Inspired by the success of the American Communist “Popular Front,” and by 19th-century American reformers who used populist and communitarian language to achieve socialist ends through incremental legislative means, the Midwest Academy’s leaders advocated a strategy of stealth.

Now, all of a sudden we see a report about the growing Communist movement in America like it’s just like any other interesting trend, as American as apple pie. The anchor even goes so far as to caution viewers not to doubt their patriotism.

This report wasn’t literally “the beginning”. Newsweak tried to get the ball rolling with their “we’re all Socialists, now” nonsense. Last Fall, we witnessed the openly Socialist “One Nation” march, and two well known commentators  admitting that they’re Socialists.

I notice trends. I see a trend, here..

See also:

Politicalunkie Mom: At least the Communist media acknowledges what our “liberal progressives” really are

Video: Steve Malzberg Interviews Jeff Kuhner – If The Truth Got Out About Obama There Would Be A Civil War

Check out  what The Washington Time’s Jeffrey Kuhner had to say on the Steve Malzberg Show re Obama’s fake Christianity, and the birth certificate controversy…

This interview is from Dec. 30:

Malzberg articulated my thoughts on the BC issue. Frankly I’m smelling a rat – some collusion between Obama and fellow Marxist, Abercrombie. My own feeling is that there’s something definitely embarrassing on the birth certificate, like his given name is Barry – not Barack – as he has said on so many many occasions. But we will probably never know.

As for the Muslim attacks on Christians over Christmas, Gabe notes over at Ace O Spades HQ, that the President has broken his silence: Obama Now Lying About Fictitious Muslim Victims of the New Years Attack on Christian Church

What is wrong with this man? Is his worldview so dependent on believing that Muslims are a victim class that he simply cannot help but create Muslim victims in an attack on Christians?

Gee, why do people continue to doubt this man’s Christianity?

UPDATE:

See also: Jack Cashill at The American Thinker: Will Obama Silence Blundering Abercrombie?

Cashill thinks Abercrombie is off the reservation – opening his big piehole on the BC issue – clearly not appreciated by the powers that be:

Obama and his operatives would invest enormous political capital in what sympathetic biographer David Remnick calls his “signature appeal: the use of the details of his own life as a reflection of a kind of multicultural ideal.”  From the beginning, they worked hard to protect the investment and did what they had to do to keep the storytellers in line.

Abercrombie may not have gotten the memo.  Although the president was likely born in the United States, he may not have been born in Hawaii, he may not have been born in August 1961, he may not have been the son of Barack Sr., or he may have simply been listed as “white” on his birth certificate.

The truth is that the storied little family never lived together.  Any fact that blew the storyline could have derailed Obama’s candidacy before it got going.  Expect the Abercrombie fuss to just sort of fade away.

Linked by Michelle Malkin, and DougRoss , Theo Spark, and GOP USA, thanks!

Post Holiday Tab-Clearing Dump

Sec. of State Hillary Clinton all smiles as she warmly shakes hands with Obama ally, VE Dictator, Hugo Chavez. More here.

Byron York brings us an amazing statistic: Obama spends nearly half his presidency outside Washington, plans to travel more:

On “Meet the Press” December 26, top White House adviser Valerie Jarrett said President Obama’s “biggest regret” is that the severity of the economic crisis forced him to “spend almost every waking hour in Washington focusing very hard on solving that crisis” and thus kept him from traveling the country to connect with the American people.  According to Jarrett, Obama recently told aides, “I really want to figure out a way where I can spend more time outside of Washington listening and learning and engaging the American people.”  Jarrett says that in 2011 the president’s schedule will “reflect that priority” — that is, include more time outside the nation’s capital.

But it turns out Obama has already spent nearly half his presidency outside Washington.  As of January 2, Obama has been president for 712 days. According to figures compiled by CBS News reporter Mark Knoller, who serves as a sort of unofficial White House record-keeper, Obama has spent 339 of those days — nearly 48 percent — outside Washington.

And yeah, as Obama starts continues focusing on his re-election campaign, he will be traveling more to “engage the American people”. Messaging is very import to Dems. They’re always working on it. “How do we fool them, today?”

Unfortunately for them, quite a few of us don’t buy the lies, anymore, and completely reject their agenda. Whoever thinks putting Obama  out there even more, as his approval ratings continue to tank, is  good idea…is delusional.

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Perhaps related to Obama’s re-election efforts: Sudden Surge: Obama Starts Mentioning Christian Faith Way More Often

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But don’t be fooled… As Paul Cooper notes at NewsReal: Radical-In-Chief: Truth Finally Comes Out On Jeremiah Wright Connection

The facts show that Obama never picked Wright’s church simply for lessons on Jesus and the Bible.  He understood Wright was a champion of black liberation theology and had the connections to make things happen.  Both Obama and Wright were acquainted and even fans of James Cone who wrote the founding text of black liberation theology in 1969.  Cone argued that blacks are oppressed by “whitey” and that the job of the preacher is to angrily call for “the destruction of America as he knows it”.

The Jeremiah Wright story should have killed Obama’s chances in the Spring of 2008, but  lucky for him, (and very, very unlucky for us), the sycophantic media killed the story. I figured McCain would bring it back up in the Fall, and really start hitting him hard with it, but …..oh well, I’m not gonna rehash that again. 

Have you read Charles Krauthammer’s timely piece, Government By Regulation, yet? He’s not sounding optimistic.

Now as always, Obama’s heart lies left. For those fooled into thinking otherwise by the new Obama of December 22, his administration’s defiantly liberal regulatory moves — on the environment, energy, and health care — should disabuse even the most beguiled.

These regulatory power plays make political sense. Because Obama needs to appear to reclaim the center, he will stage his more ideological fights in yawn-inducing regulatory hearings rather than in the dramatic spotlight of congressional debate. How better to impose a liberal agenda on a center-right nation than regulatory stealth?

It’s Obama’s only way forward during the next two years. He will never get past the half-Republican 112th what he could not get past the overwhelmingly Democratic 111th. He doesn’t have the votes and he surely doesn’t want the publicity. Hence the quiet resurrection, as it were, of end-of-life counseling.

Obama knows he has only so many years to change the country. In his first two, he achieved much: the first stimulus, Obamacare, and financial regulation. For the next two, however, the Republican House will prevent any repetition of that. Obama’s agenda will therefore have to be advanced by the more subterranean means of rule-by-regulation.

J. Christian Adams reports at PJ Media: Eric Holder’s ‘Made-Up’ Defense

He claims that the New Black Panther case is a “made up controversy.” Holder would be well-advised to retreat from this position. Too many stories, too many incidents are known by too many people.

Holder dismissed the Black Panther controversy in an interview with Charlie Savage of the New York Times:

In the interview, Savage asks Holder about the New Black Panther dismissal. Despite the fact that the New Black Panthters were captured on video with weapons and fascist-style uniforms at the entrance to a polling place, Holder said: “There is no there, there.” Really? Heady stuff from the attorney general.

When asked about the fact that Holder’s Civil Rights Division is hostile to racially equal enforcement of the law from top to bottom, Holder again deploys another cliché, calling it a “made up controversy.” Holder doubled down: “All I have on my side with regard to that is the facts and the law.”

Isn’t that special? The chief law enforcement officer of the United States is using Media Matters talking points.

On the Republican side, Duane Lester, The All American Blogger has a message for: Juan Williams, Let Me Introduce You To Herman Cain

If you missed Cain’s fiery speech from SRLC, last March, click and watch. He concluded by hinting that he may run in 2012 – “as the dark horse” candidate. Cain was one of the best speakers at the SRLC -  a charismatic and commanding  presence at podium, and his message is pure, unadulterated conservatism.

Cain expressed his indignation at the NAACP for accusing the Tea Party of racism, last July, calling the charges, “ridiculous”.

Regardless of what Howard Kurtz says, another guy to watch is fiscal/military hawk, (and Salvation Army bell ringer), Mike Pence, who is supposed to make an announcement this month about whether or not he will run for President:

“I’d put money on him running for governor over president, because the field is a lot smaller and he wouldn’t be running against an incumbent,” says Indiana’s recently retired GOP chairman, Murray Clark.

Mr. Pence usually draws under 5% in voter surveys testing the emerging 2012 field. But the excitement he’s stirred among a swath of conservatives—he won a straw poll at the prominent Values Voter Summit in September—points both to the fluidity of the 2012 lineup and the dearth of names rousing interest among the religious right, a dependable GOP voting bloc.

Mr. Bauer believes that if Mr. Pence ran, he would quickly build support among socially conservative voters. “The nomination battle would be very wide open without Mike,” Mr. Bauer says, who is one of several activists urging Mr. Pence to join the nomination fight.

***

The current Indiana governor, Republican Mitch Daniels, is term-limited in 2012 and said to be eyeing a presidential campaign himself.

Mr. Pence has long been considered a potential replacement, and his path to the governor’s office has only grown easier after Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman, a Republican, and Sen. Evan Bayh (D., Ind.) announced earlier this month that they would not run for the job.

Mr. Pence had already crisscrossed Indiana this year in support of local Republicans, contributing over $84,000 to their campaigns and attending 30 events for state legislative candidates.

Recently, as many House members flew back into Washington for the last days of the congressional session, Mr. Pence was still back home, filling in as a Salvation Army bell-ringer outside the Hobby Lobby in Anderson, Ind.

“It was good for my soul,” he said.

He definitely has presidential aspirations, and is weighing his chances in the 2012 cycle. The Governorship would give him  managerial and leadership experience – a big plus on his resume for 2016 or 2020. At only 51, Pence has time to wait.

In case you missed it - I’ve been meaning to do a story on this since Dec. 22. It’s just so outrageous: Woman arrested at ABIA after refusing enhanced pat down:

Claire Hirschkind, 56, who says she is a rape victim and who has a pacemaker-type device implanted in her chest, says her constitutional rights were violated.  She says she never broke any laws.  But the Transportation Security Administration disagrees.

Hirschkind was hoping to spend Christmas with friends in California, but she never made it past the security checkpoint.

“I can’t go through because I have the equivalent of a pacemaker in me,” she said.

Hirschkind said because of the device in her body, she was led to a female TSA employee and three Austin police officers.  She says she was told she was going to be patted down.

“I turned to the police officer and said, ‘I have given no due cause to give up my constitutional rights.  You can wand me,’” and they said, ‘No, you have to do this,’” she said.

Hirschkind agreed to the pat down, but on one condition.

“I told them, ‘No, I’m not going to have my breasts felt,’ and she said, ’Yes, you are,’” said Hirschkind.

When Hirschkind refused, she says that ”the police actually pushed me to the floor, (and) handcuffed me.  I was crying by then.  They drug me 25 yards across the floor in front of the whole security.”

The most depressing part of the story for me were the comments from sheeple following the fracas.  “The law is the law”, and  this sort of thing “keeps us safe?” Are you people kidding me? That kept you safe, how?

Here’s the latest on Islamberg, via CF’s Simian Roadhouse: Interfaith Event in Binghamton, NY:

Here’s a clip from Hannity’s show about the not-so-wholesome side to the “Muslims of America”.

The group has, for three years in a row, held a parade in Binghamton in honor of Muhammad’s birthday. Lots of leftwing Christians join in the interfaith/universalist festivities. Here’s a post about it from the Creeping Sharia blog.

While noting that it shouldn’t even be necessary, (but thanks to a judge in OK, it is), Zombie explains why America is not cut out for Sharia law: The Five Best Arguments Against Sharia in the United States

I’ll close with another amazing statistic, this one brought to us by, Atlas Shrugs: More Muslim Propaganda Debunked: NY Report, Hate crimes against Jews: 251. Hate crimes against Muslims: 11

All this Islamic propaganda nonsense about the ground zero mosque ginning up “islamophobia” is a lie to shut the infidels up. It’s a lie to enforce Islamic law (sharia) — do not insult Islam. No candor, no criticism of Islam.

I wonder, of the eleven reported crimes against Muslims, how many were faked hate.

Linked by Michelle Malkin, and Pirate’s Cove, thanks!

Your Sunday Hymn: We Three Kings

Epiphany used to be the last Sunday of “Christmastide” on the Catholic calendar, but after Vatican II,  liturgical reforms extended the season to the Solemnity of the Baptism of Our Lord, the second Sunday after New Years Day.

“We Three Kings is traditionally” sung on Epiphany to commemorate the visit of the Magi.

This version is sung by Blackmore’s Night from the album, Winter Carols.

 

Video: The Great Global Warming Swindle

I’m going to be on the road, today, so blogging will continue to be light.

Retired Geezer sent me this video a few days ago. I plan to watch it as we travel. It comes in seven parts – see what you think of it:

Part One:

Auld Lang Syne

This is a slightly different, (and my favorite version) of the Celtic classic, Auld Lang Syne. Vocals  by Susan McKeown, bass by Lindsey Horner. Lyrics by Robert Burns.

Lyrics: