...from 'round the sphere...

Super Boots

Just how many jobs has the "stimulus" created?  Today's Wall Street Joural points to an interesting claim by the Obama administration...

"...how many Americans does it take to make nine pairs of work boots? According to the White House's recovery.gov site, an $890 shoe order for the Army Corps of Engineers, courtesy of the stimulus package, created nine new jobs at Moore's Shoes & Services in Campbellsville, Kentucky. ..."

Yep.  Super Boots.  Able to create multiple jobs in a single laceup.

Guess who's not arresting illegal aliens...

Well, I'll give you three guesses, and the last two don't count.

(Via the WashTimes) It seems that arrests, indictments and/or convictions of illegal immigrants have fallen by over 50% since this time last year.  And we all know what happened about a year ago.

GOP Representative Lamar Smith points out that lax enforcement on illegal alien workers means less jobs for Americans - in a time when (ahem) jobs are getting harder to come by. 

CNN forced to admit the truth  read more »

Believe it or not, Barack Obama plans to allow 9/11 terrorist mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others to have a trial in New York...with the same full legal and civil rights that American citizens enjoy!

And you know what that means.  High priced lawyers paid for with OUR tax dollars.

That means a media circus show-trial, and a high profile recruiting opportunity for terrorists.

It means the possibility that they might actually be acquitted because of liberal judges or jury members.

It means a public trial that could reveal national security secrets to our enemies - and harm national security.

And in the process, they will make New York a target for other terrorists!

Click here and contact your members of Congress and say NO!

Tell them you oppose bringing terrorists onto American soil and granting them access to our justice system.

Demand that they be kep in isolation in Guantanamo Bay and tried by a military tribunal as war criminals.

Tell them to DEMAND that Obama reverse this decision immediately!

Tell them NO civil rights for terrorists!

Click here and let them hear from you today.  read more »

This from Coulter's latest column:

...voting for Obama a year ago was a fashion statement, much like it was once a fad to buy Beanie Babies, pet rocks and Cabbage Patch Kids. But instead of ending up with a ridiculous dust-collector at the bottom of your closet, the Obama fad leaves you with higher taxes, a reduced retirement fund, no job and a one-year wait for an MRI.

Hilarious.

The latest Rasmussen survey has an interesting analysis of the race up in Ny-23 and what it says about the GOP.  The most interesting aspect of it was what it says about what the party base has to say about the Republican leadership - specifically those in Congress.

According to the survey, 73% of Republicans believe that the congressional GOP has lost touch with the party's base.  Which just pins a number of what we've known and experienced for the last several years or more.

What's even more interesting, or perhaps revealing, is the way the folks on the other side of the aisle feel...

...while Republican voters say their congressional representatives are out of touch, a plurality (47%) of Democratic voters view their members of Congress as roughly in the same place they are ideologically. Just 27% say the average Democratic member of Congress is more liberal than the average Democrat, while 19% think the average Democrat in Congress is more conservative.

In other words, Democrats in Congress are more representative of their party's base than Republicans are.  And when you consider that twice as many Americans self-identify themselves as conservatives, it better explains the level of anger and frustration that's bubbling up all across the country.  read more »

Spending, schmending...

The Wall Street Journal has a great op-ed out today looking at government spending, as in how high it already is, and how much more the DC crowd wants to pile on top of it.

"The White House disclosed the other day that the fiscal 2009 budget deficit clocked in at $1.4 trillion, amid the usual promises to do something about it. Yet even as budget director Peter Orszag was speaking, House Democrats were moving on a dozen spending bills for fiscal 2010 that total 12.1% in more domestic discretionary increases. "

Yep, you read that right.  12.1%  And how much of that do you think is "one time only" spending, instead of "systemic"?  (hint: none)

They point out that from 2001-2008, the GOP raised spending at about double the rate of inflation...while the current crop of Democrats are besting inflation by six to one.

Quote of the Week:

The big spending ways of Congressional Democrats brings us to this quote of the week from New York's Chuck Schumer on Meet the Press.

He stated that:  "Barack Obama and we Democrats—this is counterintuitive but true—are really trying to get a handle on balancing the budget and we're making real efforts to do it."

No shame.  read more »

As hard as it is to believe, the folks at NARAL actually have a petition advocating the protection of taxpayer subsidies for abortions by senior citizens.  Talk about hard core.

Via LifeNews:

The pro-abortion group has a petition seeking signatures from abortion advocates.

Some 32,000 people have signed the document, which reads: "Anti-choice extremists at the Family Research Council are launching an outrageous media and lobbying campaign claiming that Congress' health-care reform bills will deny seniors the medical care they need in order to pay for abortion."

Thomas Peters of the American Papist blog noticed the blooper and informed LifeNews.com.

"Yes, you read that correctly -- NARAL is worried that seniors might lose their medical coverage for abortion," he chided.

Of course, this comes at a time when Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are VERY worried about having to deal with abortion related amendments in the debate over Obamacare.

The know that if an amendment to ban taxpayer funding reaches to floor in debate on the final bill, there are probably enough Democrats from "red" or "purple" states that are either pro-life or worried about getting re-elected to pass such an amendment...which would then put the pro-choice crowd in a tizzy and potentially upset the entire Obamacare apple-cart.

It would be fun to watch.

"We're going to let you die."

As incredible as it may sound, those are the words of Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, in a speech given two years ago whose premise was "what a Democrat presidential candidate would say if he wasn't worried about getting elected".

You don't say.

His remarks were caught on audio, (much to the chagrin of those pushing Obamacare right now), and you can listen to them by clicking the "video" below.  A transcript of his comments is posted below as well, (via WSJ).

It's interesting how, as you listen to his comments, you can see how much of what he says looks an awful lot like some of the elements of (and logical consequences of) current Democrat health care proposals.

Enjoy... and pass it on!

TRASCRIPT:

I will actually give you a speech made up entirely--almost
at the spur of the moment, of what a candidate for president would say
if that candidate did not care about becoming president. In other
words, this is what the truth is, and a candidate will never say, but
what candidates should say if we were in a kind of democracy where
citizens were honored in terms of their practice of citizenship, and
they were educated in terms of what the issues were, and they could
separate myth from reality in terms of what candidates would tell them:

Of course you've all hear the news by now that Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009. And what you, and pretty much everyone else in the world, have figured out by now is what a joke the prize has become.

Just what ARE the qualifications for this thing anymore?  A pulse?  Good (liberal) intentions?  Narcissism?  Bashing your own country (if it's America)?  The ability to read from a tele-prompter?  Sheesh...

On the brighter side, the good folks from the prize committee in Norway have given conservatives a running joke to hurl at "The One" for the rest of his time in office.

And it plays right into what has been a running joke about Obama pretty much since he became a national candidate.  You know, the whole "god like", everything-to-everybody, cult phenom that he (and the press) constructed...that conservatives poked fun at somewhat successfully for about a month during the campaign, (the ad showing the Red Sea parting after some inspiration words from Obama was especially nice).

And last week the folks at Saturday Night Live finally came down off of their Obama Kook-Aid high and discovered they could make fun of him for having nothing to show in terms of achievements in spite of his image, (so effectively in fact that CNN felt the need to "fact check" the skit).

And now the good folks at the prize committee in Norway have infused a life-time of energy into the joke, ("he can win a Nobel Prize, but he can't __________________").  read more »

from 'round the sphere...

Democracy, shlemocracy...

Newt Gingrich points out the undemocratic way the health care reform bill is being put together...as in by just a few senators and their staff members.

Think about it: All of the power of the United States Senate to transform one-sixth of our economy will be in the hands of three men and their aides. It's government by staff, aided by lobbyists, for the benefit of bureaucrats.

No wonder so many Democrats in Congress are so dead set against having members read - and more importantly, allowing the American people to read - bills before they vote on them. ...

Just 5 more days for that Specter refund

The Washington Examiner notes that October 15th is the last day you can get a refund from Arlen Specter if you happened to give him a campaign contribution before he jumped ship and became a Democrat.  The Club for Growth has made the generous effort of contacting all such Specter donors by mail (over 6,000 of them) and providing them with a form they can fill out and tell Specter they want their money back.

We're sure Specter appreciates their kind assistance.  read more »

We have another upgrade to our campaign to "Say NO to Socialized Medicine" and stop Obamacare.

Now you can participate (and invite others to do so) on Facebook!

The campaign is available here, on the "Take Aktion!" tab of our Facebook page.

From there you can sign the petition, fax your members of Congress, join the campaign - and invite others to participate as well.  But now you can use your Facebook network to help spread the word!

As you know, liberals in Congress are still working to push for a government run "public option", despite the opposition of the American people.

It is critical that they continue to hear from us - which means we must keep up the pressure and continue to spread the word!

We've just made it easier to do exactly that by making our campaign available on Facebook.

Help spread the word by joining our campaign on Facebook and invite your friends to join as well.

You can also take your support to the next level by adding the campaign application to your Facebook profile.  This will allow you to add the campaign to a "Take Aktion!" tab that can appear on your profile and make it easy for others to see your support of the campaign.

Simply click the blue "Go to Application" button in the upper left corner of the AktNow application page, then click "allow" to give it permission to run on your Facebook profile.  (See the example below)   read more »