It seems that the man with the middle name Hussein is a bit miffed at the usually accommodating press for accentuating his comment from yesterday - "you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig" - which any reasonable person would assume is a jab at GOP VP Nominee Sarah Palin. He is claiming that it was taken out of context. He's even more miffed at the McCain campaign for highlighting Obama's insensitive comment.

"See, it would be funny, but the news media decided that would be the lead story yesterday. This happens every election cycle. Every four years, this is what we do. This is what they want to spend two of the last 55 days talking about...Enough!"

It is about time that the Obamassiah receive the same treatment from the press as everyone else gets in Presidential politics. Kind of reminds me of a song from one of my favorite bands.

"I know a thing or two about her, I know she'll only make you cry, She'll let you walk the street beside her, but when she won't she'll pass you by..." - KISS 'Strutter'

The "her" and the "she" in the lyric reminds me of the press. It can be overly accommodating at one point then turn on you like a possessed pit bull at others. The press has been in the tank for Obama for so long when it decided to turn on him he had the reaction of an individual who is NOT prepared for the riggers of the Presidency. His harsh reaction to the press's 180 is proof that he cannot be an effective leader. If he cannot handle the minor criticism of the American press what is he going to do when faced with Russia's increasingly hostile posturing, Iran's quest for nuclear weapons, and al Qaeda? Obama went on to say,

"These are serious times and they call for a serious debate...spare me all the phony outrage. Spare me all the phony talk about change."

He's right, these are serious times and we need serious people in charge. Problem with Obama is that he cannot handle the job. We've been saying for the past 19 months that he is ill equipped to handle the Presidency of the United States of America. The job is simply above him. The McCain campaign, being the reasonable people they are, had the same reaction of Obama's pig comments as the rest of us did and took him to the mat over it which sparked his comment from today. Reacting to today's comment from "The Chosen One", McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said,

“Barack Obama can’t campaign with schoolyard insults and then try to claim outrage at the tone of the campaign. His talk of new politics is as empty as his campaign trail promises, and his record of bucking his party and reaching across the aisle simply doesn’t exist.”

As for Obama's comment, "Spare me all the phony talk about change," then Barack ought to drop the word from his vocabulary entirely. He's not an agent of change. He is nothing more than a younger version of Teddy "The Lush" Kennedy and nothing else. Barack Hussein Obama is nothing less than the same old product of the Chicago Democrat Machine. Change... He doesn't know the meaning of the word. If he hopes to defeat Hillary Clinton for his Party's nomination in 2012 then he's going to have to learn how to deal with a hostile press and people taking what you say out of context because that is what the job entails - like it or not. Because he's losing this election and even the most hardened Democrats are realizing this. Salon.com columnist Camille Paglia has even written...

I must admit that McCain is currently eating Obama's lunch.

And...

Conservative though she may be, I felt that Palin represented an explosion of a brand new style of muscular American feminism. At her startling debut on that day, she was combining male and female qualities in ways that I have never seen before. And she was somehow able to seem simultaneously reassuringly traditional and gung-ho futurist. In terms of redefining the persona for female authority and leadership, Palin has made the biggest step forward in feminism since Madonna channeled the dominatrix persona of high-glam Marlene Dietrich and rammed pro-sex, pro-beauty feminism down the throats of the prissy, victim-mongering, philistine feminist establishment.

They see the election slipping away. They see the writing on the wall. They see a day in January when John S. McCain III on the steps of the Capital Building raises his right hand and says, "I John S. McCain do solemnly swear..." They see Sarah Palin doing the same and their world is crashing in around them. They've nominated the wrong candidate for President and they know it.

 

H/T: The Politico

It was just months ago that Sen. Harry Reid with his eyes on a Democratic White House win declared in no uncertain terms that US forces lost the war in Iraq. When called on his declaration Harry obediently shut his trap for a few weeks. When he couldn’t explain how he could declare a war that had already been won lost, he shut up. When he said that the surge had been a failure when it wasn’t yet fully in place and called on it, he shut up. On the day that the surge was fully in place and beginning full operations in Iraq, Harry then again went before the Senate and declared the war in Iraq lost and that the surge was a failure.

Now several weeks after this monumental case of foot-IN-mouth disease, members of the Senate Majority Leader’s own party have visited Iraq and have returned stating, without ambiguity, that the surge is in fact working. Oh my stars, it is actually working?!? Even the incredibly biased main stream media have declared the troops surge a success. A declaration which I would never expected in the current state of the so-called objective msm. So what is the Democrats’ strategy now? To attack the Iraqi government.

I will admit that the Iraqi government hasn’t done enough to end the sectarian violence. But then again, how can we expect centuries of tribal differences to be solved overnight? We are talking about 3 different ethnic factions within this government who have been at war with each other, unless suppressed by a dictator, for literally centuries; but yet American politicians expect these factions to kiss and make up for the sake of excusing our troops expeditiously.

Sen. Carl Levin, one of the Democrats who have recently visited Iraq and returned with a positive report on the surge, is now attacking Iraqi PM al-Maliki.

“I hope the Iraqi assembly, when it reconvenes in a few weeks, will vote the Maliki government out of office and have the wisdom to replace it with a less sectarian and more unifying prime minister and government.” SOURCE

What Levin fails to realize is no matter who the Iraqi people elect, they will be sectarian because of the tribal differences which have existed since long before Mohammad had his drug induced hallucinations and started the cult known as Islam.

What’s worse is that others from his party, such as Presidential wannabe Hillary Clinton, has stated similar sentiments in the past few weeks. It seems that since the whole idea that the troops surge wasn’t working got pulled out from under them, they have all needed another battle cry to get US troops out of Iraq prematurely. They can’t do it based on poor performance so they have dreamed up the idea of attacking a perception of an ungrateful government. And in particular an ungrateful and uncooperative Prime Minister.

Levin’s statements have prompted al-Maliki to fire back.

“There are American officials who consider Iraq as if it were one of their villages, for example Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin. They should come to their senses.” SOURCE

And al-Maliki is right. We have a moral obligation in Iraq to provide security after we dismantled the existing military in 2003. The initial decisions to de-Baathify the Iraqi government was in error as the security situation rapidly degraded and al Qeada took up residence. We gave them the opportunity and the tools to create a democracy; but it is up to them what they do with those tools. Until Iraqi Security Forces are able to control the security situation in Iraq, we must continue to provide that security. Until al Qeada is removed from Iraq, we must pursue them in Iraq. But as far as their internal political strife is concerned, that isn’t our business.

This said however, if their government should begin to move into a direction that is politically in opposition to our interests, we have the ability to leave. We must keep that position. We must let them know that should they move into a non-democratic direction, we’re gone Jack.

But for us to tell them (or more importantly for a low level insignificant politician from the opposition party at that to tell them) how to handle their internal politics is beyond wrong. That would be akin to the Chinese telling us after the 2008 election that they don’t like who we selected and insist that we remove that person in favor of another. It just isn’t done.

I have news for all these Democrats who think that they are running things, you aren’t. It took this nation 11 years to develop a document which established this nation. 11 years! Saddam was in charge just 4 years ago in Iraq.

And for all of you block-heads out there who call our operation in Iraq a war, the war was over 4 years ago you nit-wit. We haven’t been in conflict with Iraqi forces since 2003. The war is over. And guess what? We won.

One more thing before I go.

It takes a big pair of stones to talk about another government’s inability to get anything done when the government you lead hasn’t done a damned thing since you were put in charge of it. What have the Dems to celebrate so far in this do-nothing Congress? The minimum wage increase? They had to slip that in the back door. It was a rider on the War Supplemental. People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

We are beginning to enter a very politically anemic time of the year – the month of August.

History has shown politics to become rather dull during the Dog Days of Summer. Congress takes a break, political campaigns tend to tighten their belts and make fewer appearances, blog traffic takes a nose dive, and “the folks” become more concerned with “back to school” than what’s happening nationally.

Right now we have recently graduated teenagers getting ready to embark on their first taste of adulthood – college. Those institutions of higher learning where they will be receiving a steady diet of liberal indoctrination washed down by the Koolaid flavor of the month.

Those who are getting ready to send their know-it-all college freshmen to the Liberal Indoctrination Centers of America campus of their choice need to be asking themselves some very important questions.

• “Have we prepared our child for the onslaught they are about to face?”

• “Have we instilled enough of our values in our child to do battle with forces that will tempt them down the path of self destruction?”

• “Is my child prepared to stand up for what he/she believes in, in the face of the secular progressive bum rush they are about to encounter?”

• “Does my child have the skills to resist the peer-pressure that is about to tempt them into socialist advocacy?”

Traditionally college is a time of experimentation and rebellion. Back in the 60s when most institutions of higher learning were run by people with more conservative values, the way to rebel was to espouse liberalism. But things have changed. Liberalism would be conformist today, despite the fact that those who protest on campuses say they are fighting the system. The fact is liberalism is the system on college campuses across this nation. The message that is being delivered by the pinheads running Congress is the same message being delivered at the college protest marches of today. So how rebellious is that?

As a conservative parent you must be instilling into your child that in today’s political climate to be a liberal is to be conformist and part of the establishment - especially at college. To be Conservative and/or a Christian is to go against the grain. And if they wish to leave a rebellious mark on their campus in their limited time there, to be openly Conservative and/or Christian is the way to go.

As a Conservative parent, you must begin this fight in their JUNIOR year in high school. When they first begin to look into which college or university they wish to attend. If you have the means it is preferable to seek admissions to private institutions which have a stronger Conservative or religious tradition.

As a Catholic, I would be looking to send my child to an institution which has a strong Saint John Neumann Center or a Catholic university such as Franciscan University of Steubenville or the University of Dayton which has a strong Catholic tradition. That is if I had the means to send my college age child to a private institution.

If a state school is the only way I could do it, I would seriously consider having my child do his/her first 2 years at a branch campus where they live at home rather than staying in a dorm or off campus housing. This would minimize their exposure to extracurricular liberal influences.

If you have a child just beginning high school, it is not too early to start planning for “what’s next”. Here in Ohio we have what they call “Post Secondary Enrollment Option” where a high school student can actually take classes at a branch campus of a state university where they would get both high school AND college credits.

A student just entering high school needs to be educated by their parents that the only way to get ahead of the curve is to have the grades which qualify them for such programs while in high school. This would reduce the number of years of study required after high school to achieve the degree level they are aspiring to for their career of choice. And in turn then reduce the amount of liberal indoctrination your child is exposed to once they leave the nest.

To those who have small children or who are not yet parents but are planning on being parents there is a lesson to be learned as well. A lesson that has gone largely ignored since the 1960s when liberal thinking took over the institutions of higher learning in this country. This is the lesson of being responsible parents.

In my faith marriage is a sacrament and religious vocation which has the goal of raising children in the faith. If you are faithful to those duties, your children are prepared. But let us remember that as Americans we are busy people. We allow ourselves to become politically apathetic, develop political ADHD, over use the electronic babysitters, and succumb to the idea that our needs outweigh those of others in our lives, such as our own children.

This is the reason why children even in this day in age are allowed to roam the streets unmonitored which leads to delinquency and the use of controlled substances by increasingly younger and younger children. A parent conscious of their responsibilities as a parent would know what their children are doing at every moment of the day. Active involvement in your child’s life will head off any negative influences on the streets.

Increasingly we are seeing the secular progressive message creep its way into the classroom. We’ve had high school teachers campaigning for office in class. We’ve had high school teachers engaging partisan politics in the classroom. We have the encroachment of sex education at increasingly lower grade levels even to the fact that a parent was arrested in Massachusetts for raising his objections to his 5 year old coming home with a book entitled “Why Does Heather Have Two Mommies”.

There is only one answer to this. There is only one way to counter it. It is called responsible parenting. If you are unable to be a responsible parent now when your child is young, by the time they get to college, that is if they make it to college, it will be nearly impossible to assist in molding them into responsible citizens. You must start now or the war is lost.

Your child needs to know what responsible citizenship is and it isn’t the public school system that will be teaching it. You need to know what was taught in your child’s classroom daily. You need to ask your child, “What did your teacher teach you today,” so that you can counter any negative influences.

If this seems like a lot of work, it is. But you decided to have the child and you are under obligation to GOD to be certain that they are raised with a values system consistent with your religious teachings. You are under an obligation to your country and your community to raise a child who will enjoy their freedoms as an American within the acceptable boundaries of society. And this job starts before they even enter school.

You have an obligation to meet with your child’s teacher and investigate that teacher. And not just when the school system schedules a “parent – teacher conference” that is little more than a cattle call of parents where they give you the same old song and dance that is all about your child and not about their teaching.

Make no mistake about it, public school teachers are part of the problem and abandoning your child into the quagmire known as public education is irresponsible. This is the reason why we need school choice voucher programs so that we can send our children to schools where they will be taught how to read, write, factor numbers, the history of our nation without modifications, and the value systems that we ourselves believe in.

And that’s the rant.

Remember to listen to Andy in the Afternoon - Gribbit's DJ gig on Radio CIA - Tuesdays and Wednesdays 3-7pm Central Time.

First there was Live Aid –

A multi-venue rock music concert held on July 13, 1985 organized to raise awareness and funding to help relieve the effects of a widespread famine in Ethiopia. Billed as the ‘global jukebox’, the main sites for the event were Wembley Stadium, London and JFK Stadium, Philadelphia which attracted an attendance of about 72,000 and 90,000 respectively. Other acts performed at other venues such as Sydney and Moscow. It was one of the largest-scale satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time: an estimated 1.5 billion viewers, across 100 countries, watched the live broadcast.

Then there was Live 8 –

A series of benefit concerts that took place on July 2, 2005, in the G8 states and in South Africa. They were timed to precede the G8 Conference and Summit held in Scotland from July 6-8 2005. They were also timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Live Aid. Run in support of the aims of the UK’s Make Poverty History campaign and the Global Call for Action Against Poverty, the shows planned to pressure world leaders to drop the debt of the world’s poorest nations, increase and improve aid, and negotiate fair trade rules in the interest of poorer countries. Ten simultaneous concerts were held on July 2nd and one on July 6th. On July 7th, the G8 leaders pledged to double 2004 levels of aid to poor nations from 25 to 50 billion US dollars by the year 2010. Half of the money was to go to Africa.

In other words, the Live 8 event had a goal of influencing political leaders rather than raise private sector money as was done in ‘85. This turned off many Conservatives in the US.

In the classic tradition of morons not learning from experience, a third sequel was planned. This time, to “raise awareness” to the non-problem of global climate change called, Live Earth. And like most third in the series sequels, Live Earth departed from the success of the first event changing its focus from poverty and hunger to the egotistical idea that man is solely responsible for the rise in earth’s temperatures.

This massively expensive ecomoronic lovefeast was planned by the politically insignificant has been politician and High Priest of the Church of Global Warming of Modern Day Idiots, former Vice President Chicken Little, I mean former Vice President Al Gore. Speaking to the concert goers in that incredibly condescending manner that he is well known for, Gore hoped to raise awareness to a non-problem that he and his cult followers have already been successful in saturating the media with. I mean how much more awareness did this event hope to raise. They’ve already gotten the bulk of the world believing this bunk when the science just doesn’t support his conclusions.

The arrogant idea that man has the power to effect the world’s climate shows that man, no matter how intelligent we are, can’t realize that we don’t control the world, we are part of it.

The earth’s climate has been changing since the planet came into existence. Which is evidenced by an article that appeared in AFP last Friday…

Via Breitbart.com

Scientists who probed two kilometers (1.2 miles) through a Greenland glacier to recover the oldest plant DNA on record said Thursday the planet was far warmer hundreds of thousands of years ago than is generally believed.

DNA of trees, plants and insects including butterflies and spiders from beneath the southern Greenland glacier was estimated to date to 450,000 to 900,000 years ago, according to the remnants retrieved from this long-vanished boreal forest.

That contrasts sharply with the prevailing view that a lush forest of this kind could only have existed in Greenland as recently as 2.4 million years ago, according to a summary of the study, which is published Thursday in the journal Science.

The samples suggest the temperature probably reached 10 degrees C (50 degrees Fahrenheit) in the summer and -17 C (1 F) in the winter.

They also indicated that during the last period between ice ages, 116,000-130,000 years ago, when temperatures were on average 5 C (9 F) higher than now, the glaciers on Greenland did not completely melt away.

“These findings allow us to make a more accurate environmental reconstruction of the time period from which these samples were taken,” said Martin Sharp, a glaciologist at the University of Alberta, Canada, and a co-author of the paper.

“What we’ve learned is that this part of the world was significantly warmer than most people thought.”

In a separate paper, also published in Science, European experts said they had analysed the world’s deepest ice core, enabling them to reconstruct patterns of warming and glaciation over the past 800,000 years.

The 3,260-metre (10,595-feet) core was drilled into the East Antarctica icesheet at the Franco-Italian base, Dome C. The drillers, gathered in a venture called the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA) stopped just 15 metres (48.75 feet) short of the bedrock.

Using traces of the hydrogen isotope deuterium in air bubbles trapped in the ice layers, the scientists built a record of greenhouse-gas concentrations over the aeons, which in turn provides a record of temperature.

They found the temperature varied widely, by as much as 15 C (27 F) over the 800,000 years. In the last Ice Age, which ended around 11,000 years ago, the temperature was 10 C (18 F) lower than today.

The EPICA team had previously analysed the Dome C core to a depth equivalent to 650,000 years ago.

If there were no humans, no cars, no industrialization, no wasteful incandescent light bulbs, and no burning of fossil fuels to heat and light homes, then what prey tell is the explanation for temperatures in excess of those we are currently experiencing?

-Crickets-

How about natural cyclic phenomena?

Current science better supports the idea that sunspot activity, not carbon dioxide has a direct effect on the levels of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. The most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is water vapor. Water vapor is produced by the world’s oceans, lakes, rivers, and streams and it is this water vapor which is trapping the heat in NOT carbon dioxide.

Carbon dioxide makes up 1/400th of 1% of all the gases in our atmosphere. Of that, man is responsible for approximately 3%. So if we were to halt all of man’s contributions of CO2 to the atmosphere, at best we would be saving an unimpressive 6 Billion Metric Tons. There would still be an estimated 180 Billion Metric Tons entering without man’s contribution.

Along with this is the fact that increases in carbon dioxide levels lag temperature increases by 10 – 20 years. So literally increases in CO2 are the result of, not the cause of global warming.

The Live Earth event was an undeniable failure. The South African show was hindered by a massive snow storm. Snow Storm! Talk about poetic justice!

Television audiences did not tune in.

From The Hollywood Reporter:

NBC’s three-hour primetime “Live Earth” special, which included highlights from Saturday’s global concerts, failed to generate much enthusiasm in the ratings.

The estimated 2.7 million viewers was slightly under the 3 million viewers NBC has averaged on Saturday nights in the summer with repeats and the Stanley Cup hockey playoffs on what is already the least-popular night of television.

One climate expert has estimated that approximately 100,000 trees would need to be planted to “offset” the energy used in jet fuel shuttling those rock stars to their various venues. That’s real ecofriendly isn’t it? I wonder how many trees it would take to offset the billions of kilowatt hours of electricity used at the various venues for lighting and sound?

Offsetting carbon usage is nothing more than a self imposed tax on carbon. Carbon taxes will do nothing to reverse global warming. And neither will having a house that uses 100 times the amount of energy as does the average American household Mr. Gore.

… but no mention of Clinton’s pardoning of 339 criminals during his 8 years in office.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and other prominent leftists are complaining about President George W. Bush’s decision to spare I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby prison time but conveniently ignore the hundreds of criminals that William Jefferson Clinton granted full pardons for.

From the AP via AccessNorthGA.com:

“The president said he would hold accountable anyone involved in the Valerie Plame leak case. By his action today, the president shows his word is not to be believed.” - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

---

“It is time for the American people to be heard - I call for all Americans to flood the White House with phone calls tomorrow expressing their outrage over this blatant disregard for the rule of law.” - Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del.

---

“This commutation sends the clear signal that in this administration, cronyism and ideology trump competence and justice.” - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.

---

But conveniently none of them mention Clinton’s pardoning of Hillary’s law partner and co-conspirator in Whitewater, Susan McDougal. McDougal was granted a pardon on Clinton’s last half day in office along with some 141 others. As George W. Bush was preparing to take the oath of office on January 20, 2001, Clinton was wearing out his pen granting pardons to the likes of McDougal and his own brother Roger who was serving time for “Conspiracy to distribute cocaine, 21 U.S.C. § 846? and “Distribution of cocaine, 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1)”

In his 8 years in office, Clinton granted 339 full pardons. These are individuals who, with the stroke of Slick Willy’s pen, had their convictions erased. And now his biggest fans on the left are condemning George W. Bush for granting clemency to “Scooter” Libby?!? If you ever needed a definition of hypocrisy… now you have it.

See the list of pardons granted by President William Jefferson Clinton during his tenure

Allowing the destruction of the Bush-McKennedy “Grand Compromise” (that pig bill that we call “The Great American Sellout”) to sit for a few days, I’ve had a chance to contemplate the lessons to be extracted from the experience. What did Talk Radio and Bloggers learn from the battle to kill the bill?

We learned that when back door deals are being hustled through Congress, the American people need to know as-soon-as-possible and we are the ones who must keep up the fight. America has political ADHD and those in Congress who propose these back door deals rely on that. If the people are not reminded of the danger of an impending piece of legislation it will pass. However if they are reminded day after day, the American people have the muscle to defeat these dangerous bills.

We learned that talk radio and the conservative blogosphere work well together. Bloggers are passionate people. We can recognize dangerous aspects of pending legislation then pick it apart. Talk radio has the power of its audience. When a talk radio show host can grab hold of the research done by the conservative blogosphere and take that information to his/her audience, wondrous democratic forces take hold. The people are empowered. It makes them think. It makes them read. Most of all it makes them want to talk about what they like about what’s going on. But more importantly it makes them talk about what they don’t like about what’s going on. And that’s what happened with the death of Bush-McKennedy.

Talk radio audiences are some of the most well informed people in the country. They look to talk radio not for news, but rather to confirm that they are not alone in their opposition or support for a particular item. Sometimes they don’t know what to think about an issue and tune in to see what others think. Ultimately, talk radio audiences make up their own minds. This is why shows like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingram, Mike Gallagher, Michael Medved, and the countless others succeed and Air America failed.

Talk radio audiences read the leftist dominated dead tree media and they watch the leftist dominated MSM. These people think, unlike the mindless robots that listened to Air America before its bankruptcy and NOW its impending demise. If you ever notice there will be two differing opinions between Conservative hosts as opposed to the mindless parroting of the leftists. Doom and Gloom will always lose out to optimism and hope.

(Cartoon drawn by Paul Nowak.)

In the past few days there has been the grumblings of resurrecting the “Fairness Doctrine” being heard on The Hill. Why? Because their precious bill failed. The American people didn’t want anything to do with that bill. So talk radio got blamed because the people were informed.

Because talk radio is dominated by conservatives, liberals in Congress want to silence the dissent. Forget that the dead tree media and network tv news is dominated by liberal thinking and bias. Forget that talk radio IS the balance to an unbalanced media. “We must balance talk radio in order to make things fair,” is the message that Diane Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi are speaking of when they talk about resurrecting the “Fairness Doctrine”. They have no interest in being fair. They want leftist indoctrinating propaganda being pushed by the New York Times, broadcast networks, CNN, and MSNBC to be the only source of information available in order to contaminate the voter pool which is dominated by political apathy. They know that if theirs is the only message being put out, that keeps them in power. 

What better example of the power of democracy do we have than the events leading up to the demise of the “Great American Sellout”? The bill died because the people wanted it to die. Talk radio and the blogosphere have given the people a voice. And that voice has put politicians of both parties on notice. “We’re watching you” is the message of that voice and they don’t like it.

That’s right, the 2008 general election means a possible return of a Conservative majority in the Senate and perhaps the House as well if the GOP plays its cards right. Notice that I didn’t say Republican? I said Conservative.

The key to making this happen is an active search for Conservative candidates. Just because someone has a GOP membership card doesn’t necessarily mean that they will return fiscal restraint and limit social expansion of our government. I need no further example of the danger of RINOs than John McCain and George Voinovich. Two individuals whose Conservative credentials are less than those of Blue Dog Democrat Zell Miller.

That said, who is vulnerable on the left side of the aisle in the Senate? How about Mary Landrieu (D LA)? She’s up for re-election from a state that has been under the Democrat thumb for decades. A state in which corruption is the norm and where funds designated to maintain levies were irresponsibly spent on other projects that state legislators wanted instead of maintaining levies. Levies which ultimately failed after Katrina made landfall in Mississippi. Those levies failed because the much needed maintenance was never performed.

In spite of the failures of Katrina, citizens of New Orleans re-elected Ray Nagin as Mayor and William Jefferson, who is under a 16 count federal indictment for corruption and racketeering, as their US Representative. An indictment which was expected before the election but wasn’t handed down until last month. House GOP members are already calling for Jefferson’s head.

Now, in a complicated twist of fate, a Republican is mounting a serious run at becoming Governor and is expected to win. A Conservative Democrat, yes there are a few left, is considering switching parties and mounting a challenge to Landrieu. And the most shocking revelation is that his name is Kennedy.

According to Robert Novak from Townhall.com:

John N. Kennedy, Louisiana’s conservative Democratic state treasurer, is expected to change parties and run against Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu as a Republican at the urging of White House aide Karl Rove, despite harassment from the Democratic-controlled state legislature.

Kennedy long has considered changing parties, but wanted to wait until the current state legislative session ended. His switch was discussed on Mother’s Day in a private lunch attended by Kennedy, Rove and David Vitter, Louisiana’s Republican senator. When Vitter leaked Kennedy’s intentions, the legislature began machinations to obstruct operations of the state treasurer’s office.

A strong fiscal conservative, Kennedy is fighting maneuvers intended to chew up a state budget surplus, as a Republican, Rep. Bobby Jindal, is expected to be elected governor of Louisiana this year.

The key in the article by Novak is the statement, “A strong fiscal conservative, Kennedy is fighting maneuvers intended to chew up a state budget surplus…” The fact that he’s been courted by David Vitter isn’t a hindrance but Dems might make an issue of his friendship with Karl Rove. Personally I like Rove. He knows how to win.

Another seat that will be key is South Dakota’s seat currently held by the ailing Tim Johnson. Johnson is not likely to make a return to the Senate and South Dakotans are not being adequately represented. Johnson’s handlers are not allowing the Senator to retire on the grounds of his health in order to maintain the razor thin majority in the Senate. They know if they resign the seat on the grounds of retirement, Republican Governor Mike Rounds is likely to appoint a Republican state Senator to replace Johnson in the US Senate thereby eliminating the razor thin majority.

South Dakotans will likely remember their political sacrifice at the hands of the South Dakota Democratic Party come November 2008 so there is another seat that the GOP can pick up should a Conservative enough candidate be fielded.

I’m tired of hearing that the people want more centrists in Congress. People who will work together. I’m of the belief that the American people want the clear differences. Differences prevent errors like the recent immigration bill. It was Republicans acting like centrists that allowed that bill to be resurrected from its first death. And the American people did not like that idea.

The House is quickly being seen as the mass of incompetence that it is. Nancy’s crew is showing that they are incapable of governing and at this point, 8 of the 9 most vulnerable seats are likely to return to the GOP come November 2008. We are talking about 8 seats in districts strongly won by George W. Bush in 2004. Two of which were stolen through political trickery. Mark Foley’s old seat where the Florida Democratic Party successfully kept his replacement’s name off the ballot. And Tom Delay’s old seat where the Texas Democratic Party successfully did the same.

The lesson that should be learned as to what happens when you grant control of Congress to a group of people who run on the platform ‘we aren’t them’ but offer no agenda of their own.

The Democrats gained control of the 110th Congress in spite of the fact that they came into power with no agenda. Here we are 6 months into their majority and they have only gotten 1 of their projects passed. And that project had to be slipped into the War Supplemental as a rider - the increase in the federal minimum wage. Everything else they have attempted has failed enhancing the perception that the 110th Congress is the “Do Nothing Congress”.

I’m optimistic. I’m optimistic that the Dems in the House will drop the ball so badly that the people will likely not want another 2 years of their incompetence. There needs to be a 17 seat swing to the GOP and 8 of those seats are almost certain. It is up to the Conservative blogosphere and talk radio to keep this Congress’s failings in the public eye.

As dust begins to collect on the now lifeless sellout known as the "Grand Compromise" by its promoters, a new threat is beginning to gain steam among those on the left who wish to silence the only media completely controlled by Conservatives - talk radio.

The Fairness Doctrine was an FCC rule that was allowed teeth just as long as no one challenged it in court. During the Reagan Administration, the Fairness Doctrine finally went the way of the Do Do. So we thought.

Now, disgruntled liberal Senators and Representatives are now beginning to grumble about the return of the Fairness Doctrine - this time through legislation.

Diane Feinstein, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and others are a bit miffed at talk radio's influence over the masses and its ability to rally those who oppose the majority's efforts to buffalo the American people. They've even gotten several Republicans to parrot their anti 1st Amendment rhetoric.

Trent Lott is supposed to be the Minority Leader. He is supposed to lead the opposition to the Democrats' attempts "to pull a fast one" on the American people. But in the past few weeks he was holding hands with some of the most liberal of Senators further proving that liberalism is the only communicable mental disorder and those who begin to age are susceptible to acquiring such a dangerous illness from which the only cure is the truth.

The American people saw the truth and did battle against those willing to sell us out in the name of bipartisanship and protecting business interests which rely on the modern day slave trade. They saw the truth because the bogosphere dissected the provisions of this complicated and evolving pig of a bill and talk radio exploited it's failings. The American people listened and called their Senators' offices clogging the phones until they crashed. This my friends is democracy in action.

If left solely to the Main Stream  and Dead Tree Media, this bill would have passed and we would have had the 1986 so-called "compromise" all over again. The '86 bill took a "problem" of 3 million illegals, made them legal, and in doing so encouraged 12 - 20 million more to come in to replace them. Some fix huh. If the '86 bill resulted in compounding the "problem" 4 - 7 times, I wonder how bad this pig would have made things in another 20 years?

But it was the modern media that sunk its teeth into this legislation and derailed it. We derailed it utilizing the democratic power granted us by the internet and talk radio to express our opinion over that of the rhetorical politicians whose number one priority is to keep their jobs.

Those advocating the return of the fairness doctrine for talk radio, are only interested in returning politics to the smoky back rooms so that 'We the People" are shielded from its ugly compromises and dirty  deals. The advocates want to return to the days of "what they don't know won't hurt them".

Those of us opposed to their legislative "fix" to a "problem" that doesn't exist see it for what it is. They wish to silence talk radio from rallying the people. They know that liberal talk radio failed because no-one wants to tune in for 3 hours of liberal tripe. Air America got old fast because Franken et al didn't offer anything but calling people liars for exposing the liberal agenda. (Sounds like someone who trolls Gribbit's Word).

Those who advocate the return of the fairness doctrine conveniently forget that liberals control network television and fail to talk about its imbalance. Those who advocate the return of the fairness doctrine conveniently forget that the editorial boards of the vast majority (I'd say 9 out of 10) newspapers are controlled by the left and forget to talk about their imbalance. Even 2 of the 3 big cable news networks are firmly in the grip of leftist thought. And yet no one sitting in a position to revive that dinosaur speaks of balancing that out - because they can't.

If we allow the return of the fairness doctrine to occur, then terrestrial radio will follow network tv into the gutter. TV news ratings are down across the board. Network TV is on the brink of introducing what PBS has been doing for years - introducing membership drives in order to stay afloat.

As more and more sports leagues move their television coverage to cable, no longer will sports be the savior of network news operations that are losing viewers like passengers off a sinking cruise ship. CNN and MSNBC continually lose the ratings war to Fox News Channel because of the liberal tripe that is permitted to dominate their coverage. Market forces are demanding balance in the news.

Talk radio however is driven by market forces as well. People tuned out Air America because they got tired of the personal attacks and overwhelming negativity. The same mentality driving leftist attacks pages in the blogosphere (like one that trolls Gribbit's Word) was pervasive on Air America. Those meaningless little blogs that contribute nothing to the national discussion but rather spend their time trolling Conservative blogs in pitiful attempts to anger enough writers and readers of those blogs to strike back. For a while we fell for it. But many like myself have chosen to not engage these leftist trolls here in the blogosphere. And now they wallow in their obscurity without learning that their shrill comments on their insignificant blogs go unread.

Air America had their bite at the apple and lost. They lost because of poor management and talentless hosting. Because they were unable to compete the Democrats controlling Congress now want to legislate a success for talentless hosts. And this is the sellout that is on the horizon.