Right Wing Nation

It’s pretty scary, too, and non in an entertaining way: How Obama Got Elected.

Related is the quotation of the day, from Dicklist.

The American media is now a larger threat to the nation’s security than terrorism.

First, McCain, now Penn State:

Iowa kicked a 31-yard field goal to complete a comeback and beat Penn State 24-23.

Undefeated no longer.

100 votes “found” in Minnesota — and every one is for the jackass!

From the “They’re just now noticing?” files, first, Newsweek editors think there’s something creepy about Obama’s personality cult.

MEACHAM: You know, they don’t let him out. And have you ever seen a victory speech where there was no one else on stage?

ROSE: Mmm.

MEACHAM: No adoring wife, no cute kid. He is the messenger.

THOMAS: There is a slightly creepy cult of personality about all this. I mean, he’s such an admirable –

ROSE: Slightly. Creepy. Cult of personality.

THOMAS: Yes.

ROSE: What’s slightly creepy about it?

THOMAS: It — it — it just makes me a little uneasy that he’s so singular. He’s clearly managing his own spectacle. He’s a deeply manipulative guy.

ROSE: Watching him last night in that speech, he finishes –

MEACHAM: Yeah.

ROSE: — and he sort of — it’s almost like he then ascends to look at the circumstance.

MEACHAM: He watches us watching him.

THOMAS: Watching him!

ROSE: Exactly!

THOMAS: He does –

MEACHAM: It’s amazing.

ROSE: It is amazing.

THOMAS: He writes about this metaphor being a screen upon which Americans will project. He said they want of Barack Obama; I’m not sure I am Barack Obama.

ROSE: Mmm!

THOMAS: He had — he has the self-awareness to know that this creature he’s designed isn’t necessarily a real person, and he’s self-aware enough –

ROSE: Ahhhhhh!

You’d think they would have noticed when cultists were fainting, or cheering when he picked his nose, or when he put up that Greek temple tableau, but no, I guess not.

Then, a light bulb suddenly goes on in Dick Armey’s head.

But today there is a categorical difference between what Republicans stand for and the principles of individual freedom. Parties are all about getting people elected to political office; and the practice of politics too often takes the form of professional juvenile delinquency: short-sighted and self-centered.

This was certainly true of the Bush presidency. Too often the policy agenda was determined by short-sighted political considerations and an abiding fear that the public simply would not understand limited government and expanded individual freedoms. How else do we explain “compassionate conservatism,” No Child Left Behind, the Medicare drug benefit and the most dramatic growth in federal spending since LBJ’s Great Society?

Gee, Dick, d’ya think?

You just have to wonder sometimes.

The monitor on my desktop is dead. You’re no doubt visualizing an LCD monitor, but that’s because you don’t know me. I used to take a lot of flack from my colleagues at the business school because they were (stupid jargon alert!) “first adopters,” people who will buy the latest toy to come out just because it’s the latest toy to come out.

I’m not like that. I don’t buy new toys until the old ones no longer work.

Let’s take that Canon that picked the day of the Washington rally to die. It was crap. I hated it. But I did not buy a camera to replace it because it worked. I only replaced it when it died.

This is an old — ten years old, I believe — CRT monitor. It’s been annoying the last few months — the picture wiggles up and down the screen, and reading it is a skill in itself. Or was. It’s black. No picture. Nothing. It’s as dead as a Chicago Democrat voter.

I have been comparison shopping lately, just to price monitors. The cheapest in town is at Sam’s Club, so I guess as soon as the Sabres - Devils game is over, I’ll go to Sam’s (yeah, I know the game was the night before last, but it was blacked out so I couldn’t watch it then, and I recorded it yesterday when it was on Versus or the NHL Channel, one, and didn’t get to watch it yesterday because I was working the polls).

Anyway, off to Sam’s here in a few to get a new monitor. Oh wait. I haven’t been to Office Depot. I may check there, since it’s right in front of Sam’s, and see if there’s a better price to be had.

Oh. And I need to drop by the rink and pick up a ticket for Saturday’s Icers game.

Bob Krumm posted his message to Republicans. I will now post mine.

I am an American conservative because I believe fervently in American Exceptionalism, and in the principles upon which this nation was founded. Whether or not an election goes my way does not change that. We held an election yesterday, and the voters spoke.

Barack Obama is my President.

The President deserves our respect as the leader of our nation. If you want to slander him, do so on your own blog. I will not tolerate it here — and when I say I will not tolerate it, I mean that I will ban you. We have put up with eight years of immature behavior from liberals’ throwing monkey shit at President Bush. If you feel it’s your turn to do the same, then I have less use for you than I do some idiot from Code Pink.

That doesn’t mean I won’t oppose the President’s policies when he is wrong. But I will not descend to the level of the left. If you have a problem with that and feel you should be throwing temper tantrums, you probably would find Michelle Malkin’s blog more to your liking. (You may chuckle at Biden when he opens his mouth and says something stupid, of course. Some temptations are impossible to resist.)

I will also not tolerate any disrespect for John McCain. Recall these words:

I would rather lose an election than lose a war.

John McCain is a man for whom honor and duty to country are everything — and that is why he got my enthusiastic vote, not because he put Palin on the ticket (though I love Palin), and not because of his platform. I did not vote against Obama, nor did I vote for Palin. I proudly voted for John McCain. John McCain lost an election, but he did not lose his honor, and for that, I admire and respect him. So if you are one of these people who do not understand honor, and want to complain that McCain should have descended to sewer tactics to win, do it elsewhere. I do not need to be reminded of how few men of McCain’s caliber there are left in the United States.

And one more thing, directed squarely at conservatives. When we have committed troops, we support them and their mission, no matter which party holds the White House. Many of you were dead wrong during the Clinton administration when you opposed our troops, and should Obama send our men and women overseas, once they have been sent, it is your duty to support them and their mission. Should this happen, and it’s very likely that it will, I will hold you to it.

We’re supposed to be the adults. Let’s act like it.

God bless these United States of America, and God bless President Obama.

Thank God it’s over. Jonah Goldberg has an eloquent piece on the election. I strongly encourage you to read it. John McCain was a gentleman to the end.

If you ever paid attention to my blogroll, I’ve changed it. Here’s why.

Every time the GOP loses an election, the seriously wacko nutjobs come crawling out from under their rocks. Black UN helicopters coming to take us away, Vince Foster was murdered, the coming pan-American state, yada yada yada, it always happens. Some — like Michelle Malkin — went off the deep end months ago, but I never got around to editing the blogroll. In the hope that these people will eventually return to sanity, I didn’t delete the links, but rather created a greylist, and put them on it. As bloggers lose their minds, and trust me, they will, I’ll put them on the greylist.

I also have used the greylist for those blogs I got sick of reading, like the Corner. Who needs the MSM when you have so-called “true conservatives” either whining and bitching about McCain during the election, or moaning about doom and gloom? Hell, forget the NYT. All you had to do was read the Corner for your daily dose of “Why I should stay at home instead of voting for the Republican ticket.”

K-Lo is the one who pushed me over the edge, first with the disingenuous “I can’t criticize my own candidate?” canned response anytime somebody got on her case for doing everything she could to bring down McCain, but ultimately, because she refuses to actually edit NRO, and let every piece of nasty trash from that bitch Kathleen Parker go through.

Sorry, we don’t need garbage like that, and we don’t need irresponsible children editing publications. K-Lo has the mind of a twelve year-old, as do half of the writers over there.

I did start a couple of aftermath pieces. I will finish and post them. But I think for a few days, I’ll focus on things that are really important, like hockey.

396 votes in the first three hours.

Back late this morning. VOTE!

It’s 4:45 am, and in an hour and fifteen minutes, I start working the polls. Expect nothing from here until noon or so. I’ll get back at 10, but then it will take me a bit to peruse the net and see what’s going on.

Got this in my inbox. Enjoy!

Dear Fellow Small Business Owners,

As a Business owner who employs 30 people, I have resigned myself to the fact that Barack Obama will probably be our next President, and that my Taxes and Carbon Fees (or however his government chooses to rape me), will go up in a BIG way.

To compensate for these increases, I figure that the Customer will have to see an increase in my costs to them of about 20%. So connect economic ankle to shin, shin to knee, knee to thigh, and I will have to lay off roughly 8 of my employees in my forced tithe to “The One.” This really, really bothers me. I believe we are family here and I wasn’t sure how to choose who will get to stay and who will have to go.

So, I strolled thru the parking lot this morning and found 8 Obama bumper stickers on my employees cars. These folks will be the first to be laid off.

Fair?

Sincerely,
[name witheld]

I can’t think of another fair way to approach this problem. If you have a better idea, let me know.
I am sending this letter to all Business owners that I know.

Sincerely

Not mine — I won’t make one, although tomorrow, during my break from working the polls (I work 6-10, then 4-6), I will be here and will tell you about the voter turnout, and any fun stuff — uh, what was I saying?

Oh yes. Bob Krumm’s prediction.

I do think, however, that the media and the polls have vastly underestimated GOP enthusiasm, and I believe tomorrow will demonstrate that they will have therefore vastly underestimated GOP turnout, like they did in 2004, except even more so this year. We didn’t have Sarah Palin on the ticket in 2004, nor did we have His Hopeyness running on the Democrat ticket. This is a fairly heavy GOP voting district. A large turnout tomorrow means a large GOP turnout. That’s what I hope to see. If, on the other hand, voting is light, I’ll be a lot more nervous.

We’ll see. Best of luck to Lt. Col. Bill Russell. If Murtha wins, it will be by only a very slim margin.

Sarah’s a natural. This is the whole speech from a rally in Las Vegas, so it’s long (25 minutes), but this is very, very good. And this speech is largely about women in America.

Both McCain headquarters in town are literally packed with volunteers.

Errands. Then to the rink for the Penn State - Ohio game. While I’m at the game, the microwave will get installed, and I can actually defrost something for dinner from the deep freeze!

And here’s a couple of things to lift your spirits.

Obama fading in Pennsylvania. And that Zogby poll: McCain 1 point ahead.

Pittsburgh pimps and whores vote Democrat!

DJ is on a roll. Just scroll and read.

Dirty Harry’s voting for the ObamaMoron:

his 30 minute infomercial just gave me diabetes and I’m gonna need the healthcare.

It’s on the Hillary Forum, but it seems to be down. It’s also been posted at Red State: Hillary staffer comes clean. The author isn’t identified, and I’m inclined to doubt these sorts of things, but this makes me suspect this may be genuine.

Obama’s radical connections. Standards operating procedure has been to cry “racism” whenever one of these has been brought up. We even have a detailed strategy ready to go should McCain ever bring Rev. Wright up. Though by themselves they are of minimal worth, taken together, Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers, Father Pfelger, and now, Rashid Khalili, are exactly what the campaign does not need. The more focus on them, the more this election becomes a referendum on Obama. The campaign strategy from the very beginning was to make this election a referendum on Bush. Strategists have been banging their head on how successfully McCain has distanced himself from Bush. This has worked, and right now the tide is in his favor. People are taking a new look at Barack Obama, and our experience when this happens tells us this is not good news at all. When they take a look at him, one or more of these names are bound to be brought up. McCain has wisely not harped on this in recent weeks and let voters decide for themselves. This was a trap we set for him, and he never fully took the bait. Senator Obama openly dared him to bring up Ayers. This was not due to machismo on the part of Obama, but actually due to campaign strategy. Though McCain’s reference to Ayers fell flat in the last debate, people in the Obama campaign were actually disappointed that he didn’t follow through on it more and getting into it. Our focus groups found this out: When McCain brings these connections up, voters are turned off to him. They’d rather take this into consideration themselves, and when this happens, our numbers begin to tank.

A conservative would never have written the bolded section above. Conservatives have been howling that McCain should take off the gloves (hockey reference!) wrt Ayers and Wright.

Anyway, it’s interesting. I suggest you read the whole thing.

Ace:

Democratic lawyers, and the Democratic prosecutors in Ohio, advise us that Ohio law is “confusing” on the point that one can only vote in a state if one actually lives in that state.

Well, confusion certainly explains this.

Congressman John Hall (D-Dover Plains) fired one of his long-time campaign advisers Tuesday, after learning that she’s embroiled in voter fraud investigations in Ohio. Amy Little, 49, has been a registered Democrat in New York since 1991, and Ulster County election officials said she voted in the party primary here in February.

But in October, Little registered to vote in Ohio.

Ace sez:

I blame The System.

What other conclusion can one draw when Obama’s lawyers and Democratic advisers cannot understand a law that says only residents are permitted to vote?

They’re stupid? They’re unethical? They feel entitled? They have no respect for the law? All of the above?

ACORN on trial.

A former employee of an affiliate of ACORN testified yesterday that the community group now in the national spotlight knew that most new voter registration forms it had gathered were fraudulent.

“Forty percent was OK,” said Anita Moncrief, referring to the number of bona fide registrations that officials at the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now believed was acceptable.

Moncrief was the star witness yesterday in a Commonwealth Court case brought by the state Republican Party and others who are asking a judge to step in and prevent voter fraud on Election Day.

For nearly two hours, Moncrief, 29, gave a scathing, though at times vague, assessment of ACORN and its efforts to go into battleground states and help mostly minorities and the poor register to vote for the first time.

The group, she said, barely trained its workers in how to register voters properly, and would fire employees if they did not meet a quota of 20 new voter applicants daily. And, if they were caught committing fraud, the group “threw them under the bus” as scapegoats to take all the legal blame, Moncrief said.

Moncrief said she worked as a development associate for Project Vote in Washington from 2005 until early this year, but that the group was so closely aligned with its sister organization, ACORN, that they were one and the same.

Moncrief was fired in January after using a Project Vote credit card to pay for personal items. On the stand, she acknowledged the incident and called it “a bad mistake.” She is unemployed after short stints in two jobs since she was fired.

Nationwide, ACORN has helped 1.3 million people register to vote this election cycle. That includes about 140,000 new registrants in Pennsylvania.

Many of them have been flagged by election officials across the state as illegitimate because they were already registered, gave wrong names, or provided incorrect addresses.

and shake his (or her) hand: Huge Democrat Turn Out In Florida Turns Into Huge McCain-Palin Gains - UPDATED!

Democrats have an almost 2 to 1 advantage in numbers, yet McCain leads in the vote totals. RCP has Obama up 3.5% in Florida - totally opposite this massive wave of early voting.  According to a GMU site monitoring early polling Florida is already seeing almost 34% of the total 2004 vote for Florida - stunning. And the advantage for Dems on this site is 45.4% to 39% (including absentee). So with a really high 6.4% advantage in turnout Obama is losing by 4%. That is some massive defection numbers away from Obama. And it would seem a large turnout is not a bad thing at all for McCain-Palin, since it will swamp the Obama strengths in certain demographics.

If this is an indication of things to come, the liberals are in for a rough week.

Again, it’s an exit poll (insert all warnings and disclaimers here):

Democrats are beaming that their party is outperforming the Republicans in early voting, releasing numbers Wednesday that show registrants of their party ahead 54 percent to 30 percent among the 1.4 million voters who have gone to the polls early.

“We’re thrilled at the record turnout so far,” said Democratic Party of Florida spokesman Eric Jotkoff. “It’s a clear indication that Democrats want to elect Barack Obama and Democrats up and down the ballot so that we can start creating good jobs, rebuilding our economy and getting our nation back on track.”

But party breakdowns for turnout aren’t the same as final tallies, and at least one poll offered a different view for the campaign of Republican John McCain.

A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll gave McCain a 49-45 lead over Democrat Barack Obama among Floridians who have already voted.

And Republicans continued to show a traditional strength, leading 50 percent to the Democrats’ 30 percent in the 1.2 million absentee ballots already returned.

So who’s been saying all this doom and gloom was crap? Eh? Who, again?

Dane and Associates poll (pdf):

Sample: 3657
MOE: ±3
Dem: 67%
GOP: 29%
Murtha: 45.5%
Russell: 43.7%

Again, note the party representation in the sample. Then note this:

McCain: 42.5%
Obama: 44.2%

The Review Journal:

With the election still a week away, nearly a quarter of the Nevada electorate has already cast ballots, according to the secretary of state.

Through the end of voting Sunday, about 300,000 people had voted early statewide, a turnout of 24.9 percent of the state’s 1.2 million active voters. In Clark County, 211,000 had voted early, a turnout of 25.9 percent.

In Clark and Washoe counties, Democrats have been voting at higher rates than Republicans since early voting began Oct. 18. However, Republicans have narrowed the margin somewhat.

On the first day of early voting, 62 percent of Clark County voters were Democrats, while 23 percent were Republicans and the rest nonpartisans or members of minor parties. Through Sunday, 55 percent of early voters were Democrats, 29 percent Republicans.

Of all registered voters in Clark County, 47 percent are Democrats and 32 percent are Republicans.

In Washoe County, 51 percent of the early voters through Sunday were Democrats, while 33 percent were Republicans.

Okay, that’s not surprising — to me, early and absentee voting (unless you’re going to be out of town on election day) is like going to Saturday evening Vigil Mass instead of going on Sunday morning. It just doesn’t feel right. The interesting part is — wait, before you read on, go back up and review the percentages of Democrats and Republicans who’ve voted. Okay. Here it is.

Exit polling of early voters conducted by a local political consultant suggests a close presidential contest in the Silver State: Democratic nominee Barack Obama had the votes of 50 percent who had voted, while Republican nominee John McCain had 48 percent of the early vote.

That’s unexpected, even taking into account all the problems with exit polls. It seems a lot of Democrats are voting McCain. Here’s the discussion on the Hillary Clinton forum.

The local rag a couple of weeks ago announced that The First Dude would be at the Homecoming tailgate, but didn’t bother to write a story afterward. They did cover last night’s Palin rally. And Mitch, who was just going to go, got lassoed into working the rally.

How does somebody with so little political (or common) sense who is so scornful of his own constituents get elected in the first place — much less re-elected for 87 years?

And I wouldn’t complain about carpetbaggers if I were a Democrat. If it weren’t for carpetbaggers, Democrats wouldn’t have half the seats in Congress they do. And as far as that goes, Bill Russell has far more in common with the constituents than Murtha does — obviously.

A long-time friend from Indiana sent me this, and I’m posting it with permission. It echoes some things I’ve been wanting to say but haven’t, because — frankly — I’m fairly disgusted. With the Democrats. With a faction in the GOP. With the nation at large. When I can calmly discuss it, I will.

Here it is.

Hi,

I have been thinking about what I would like to hear this campaign that I haven’t heard.

First, I would love to hear someone discuss Kennedy’s statement “*And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.*” While this speech was very inspiring he missed a more simple point that needs to be impressed on the minds of the American public more than ever. I would love to hear a candidate say “The greatest contribution you can make to your country is by running your life with wisdom and honor. If the majority of Americans run their lives well, the country will run well.”

If the American public had been running their lives with wisdom and honor, we would not be in the financial crisis we are in now.

This lack of wisdom in peoples’ lives has been reinforced by our government in a couple of ways that come to mind. President Bush’s comment after 9/11 that people need to shop to keep the economy going was poor judgment on his part. I would have preferred to hear him say something like “The attacks on 9/11 will have an effect on our economy. Let us not give in to the fear that these attacks may ruin our economy. Our economy will continue to be sound as long as Americans we run our economic lives with wisdom. Let us work hard to earn and spend within our means. These are the foundations of our economy.”

The American Dream of owning a home has always been considered one of the great things about our country. Here you are able to work yourself into a position were you can own the land you live on because of our laws and economic system. Unfortunately, this dream has been turned into a right. A dream is something you work for, a right is something that you innately have. While I am born with the innate ability to speak, worship (if I choose), I am not born with the innate ability to own a home.

The loans that are blamed for being the root of this crisis could never have been sold no matter how predatory lenders were, if the American public had been living their lives with wisdom and honor.

The second thing that I would love hear said in this election season is the “If you feel that the wealth of America is not spread around enough go out and create new jobs or donate to charities that have a proven record of teaching people how to lift themselves out of poverty. Many of theses same charities have lower overhead than the federal and state governments. You can be more confident of the money reaching those you are concerned about than if you trust it to us politicians.”

I cannot take the wealthy complaining about the wealth gap seriously. If Sean Penn really believed he had to much wealth he would liquidate most of his wealth and donate it to the poor. I admire Bill Gates for his desire and effort to liquidate most of his wealth in a wise and orderly fashion. I will take Oprah’s concerns for the poor more seriously when she quits shopping for shoes and lives with the collection she has.

Third, I would love to hear the statement “As soon as we have no criminals in America is when we can hope to have world peace. Until we reach the point in our own society of having no one who assumes that crime and intimidation are the way to make money or gain power, we have no right to assume the world is a peaceable place in which we do not need military and intelligence agencies protecting us. Lets face it, the human race is rough and tumble at times. Thank God for those with the strength and training to protect us. Let us pray that they will always have integrity”.

I do not think I will hear statements such as these.

Nor do I.

but after the election, not before. The tax raise was on those making $250,000 a year and up. Then, it went to $200,000. Now, it’s $150,000.

So how far down will they dare adjust it before the election?

And I may not go to the rally tonight. I know, I know, but remember: I’ve been to three so far. Look, it’s cold as hell. Well, it’s technically 41, but it’s very windy. I looked at the temp, threw on a T-shirt and a windbreaker, and went to headquarters. I was way underdressed. And my hip hurts. I’m starting to think the cold affects the arthritis.

News. Ted Stevens was convicted on seven counts of corruption (speaking of, when did “plead” become a weak verb? pleaded? Not in the King’s English, it’s not. Where did these journalists go to school?)

The Governor released this statement.

This is a sad day for Alaska and for Senator Stevens and his family. The verdict shines a light on the corrupting influence of the big oil service company that was allowed to control too much of our state. That control was part of the culture of corruption I was elected to fight. And that fight must always move forward regardless of party or seniority or even past service.

As Governor of the State of Alaska, I will carefully monitor this situation and take any appropriate action as needed. In the meantime, I ask the people of Alaska to join me in respecting the workings of our judicial system. I’m confident Senator Stevens will do what is right for the people of Alaska.

You do know who the Governor of Alaska is, don’t you?

Rob Bluey, courtesy of David Thompson.

In a local restaurant my server had on an Obama 08 tie; again I laughed as he had given away his political preference - just imagine the coincidence. When the bill came I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Obama redistribution of wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need – the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight. I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as I’ve decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful.

At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn even though the actual recipient deserved money more. I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application.

Let’s hope the waiter was intelligent enough to grasp the concept.

Oh, when the moonbats go off their meds! And a pop quiz.

Which candidate running for president today…

…has threatened the FCC licenses of television stations choosing to run ads produced by independent groups supporting his opponent?

…had taxpayer funded “Truth Quads” comprised of prosecutors and law enforcement officers threatening his ideological opponents in an effort to stifle their right to free speech?

…has, throughout his career, been more openly hostile to the concept of private ownership of firearms than any other presidential candidate in our country’s history?

…sent out e-mail “action alerts” to his followers urging them to go after radio stations that planned on allowing his critics to voice their opinions on the air?

And so forth. Note that Bruce fled Nuttichusetts for New Hampshire. He knows all about moonbats.

I’m not big on identity politics, but this woman has a point.

I cannot predict who will win the presidential campaign, but I already know who will lose big: all women.

I realized this when I saw a 20-something male student who attends a class in the community college where I teach, wearing a T-shirt that read, “Sarah Palin is a C-.” He wore it in public, in broad daylight, and without shame or even consciousness of what he was doing.

especially Michigan, via Frugal Hoosiers, I found this about Mitch Daniels.

Between 2005 and 2006 - with a Republican legislature - deficit spending was wiped away with a balanced budget. A bipartisan effort on telecommunications reform in 2006 brought broadband services to more than 100 rural communities, creating more than 2,000 new jobs across and $500 million in private investment.

The most controversial steps also occurred in this era: the Major Moves program has brought in $3.8 billion and has allowed for the I-69 extension, the U.S. 31 freeway, new Ohio River bridges to Kentucky, and this past week the Hoosier Heartland Corridor. While this polarized the legislature largely along party lines, others signed on including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the Indiana-Kentucky Council of Carpenters and Millwrights, the Corn Growers, the Coal Council, the bricklayers, the packers, the Asphalt Pavement Association, the Chamber, the Realtors, Hoosier Voices for I-69, the U.S. 31 Coalition, Indiana Association of Cities and Towns, Northwestern Indiana Building & Construction Trades Council, their brothers in the St. Joe Valley, the sheet metal workers, the Teamsters.

There are 800 new child protective service caseworkers and a new division dedicated to that cause. Cities and towns and school corporations have been paid off from the smoke and mirror days past Statehouse budget shenanigans. Full-day kindergarten - the No. 1 priority of three Democratic governors - has expanded under Gov. Daniels from 22,000 in 2004 to 46,000 in 2008.

Between 2005 and 2008, the state has cut $127.2 million from school construction projects and local tax rates.

And that’s just his first year.

Now this is especially for Michigan, because the people up there must be the stupidest human beings in the continental United States. Because of idiotic liberal Democrat policies, Michigan has one of the worst economies in the country, yet because they economy is in the sewer, they’re going to vote Democrat. Go figure. And all they have to do is look south to the next state.

Indiana — which, by the way, is posed to take the lead over Michigan as the nation’s number one car manufacturer. The difference, of course, is that Hoosiers still believe in working for a living, while in Michigan, they believe they should sit around and collect checks from the government and the auto manufacturers and whine, then elect more Democrats who will get them more money for doing nothing.

And let’s not leave those manufacturers out of the moron list here. I suppose there was nobody with enough basic intelligence at GM to figure out that giving away medical coverage to employees until the day they die might have a negative impact on the business. No, if GM wants to place blame for their near bankrupt status, all they have to do is find a mirror.

And you idiots in Michigan, when your economy gets worse, stay out of Indiana. Go to Wisconsin. They could always use more of you there.

Why bother, when Jim Treacher says it all?

A mystery is solved.

(I’ve wondered, too, why it is that the dead ALL - every one of them - votes a straight Dem ticket. Maybe they’re the only ones with no more estate tax worries?

Seems they have Democrats in Oz.

Federal Government experts want people to use the word “dryness” to describe Australia’s worst drought in a century.

The word “drought” makes farmers feel bad, says the government’s hand-picked Drought Policy Review Expert Social Panel.

If the Obamination wins, look for lots of this stupid crap here.

Saint:

You know you are really in trouble when even the Russians notice the Sovietization of your press.

That ties with Don Surber:

Democrat Joe Biden visits Charleston and draws a “crowd of several hundred” to hear how he once saw a moose at the National zoo.

H/T Ace for this.

But worst of all, for the last couple weeks, I’ve begun — for the first time in my adult life — to be embarrassed to admit what I do for a living. A few days ago, when asked by a new acquaintance what I did for a living, I replied that I was “a writer”, because I couldn’t bring myself to admit to a stranger that I’m a journalist.

You need to understand how painful this is for me. I am one of those people who truly bleeds ink when I’m cut. I am a fourth generation newspaperman. As family history tells it, my great-grandfather was a newspaper editor in Abilene, Kansas during the last of the cowboy days, then moved to Oregon to help start the Oregon Journal (now the Oregonian). My hard-living - and when I knew her, scary - grandmother was one of the first women reporters for the Los Angeles Times. And my father, though profoundly dyslexic, followed a long career in intelligence to finish his life (thanks to word processors and spellcheckers) as a very successful freelance writer. I’ve spent thirty years in every part of journalism, from beat reporter to magazine editor. And my oldest son, following in the family business, so to speak, earned his first national by-line before he earned his drivers license.

So, when I say I’m deeply ashamed right now to be called a “journalist”, you can imagine just how deep that cuts into my soul.

I can’t find confirmation of this. Malkin (Michelle, not Evgeni) says it was leaked to her, and that may very well be true and the results haven’t yet been published. Recall that the Susquehanna poll yesterday had Lt. Col. Bill Russell only four points behind Murtha, after him calling his own constituents racists and all? Imagine them being offended by that.

There’s supposed to be a Dane and Associates poll today that has Russell 13 points ahead of Murtha, specifically, 48-35.

This man was a write-in candidate because he was on active duty until August 1. I’ve been following the campaign closely, since 1) I hate Murtha more than any other elected politician, and 2) Bill’s running in the 5th district, right next to this one.

If you’re so inclined, you can donate here.

Hooah!