op ed review 9/26

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

A new national survey shows that independent voters are now moving strongly in the direction of the Republican Party. The survey raises the possibility of a fundamental realignment of independent voters and the dominance of a more conservative electorate. Today, independents say they lean more toward the Republican Party than the Democratic Party, 50% to 25%, and that the Republican Party is closer to their views by 52% to 30%.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703904304575497762602678210.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Fifty-two percent (52%) of Likely U.S. Voters say their own views are closer to Sarah Palin’s than they are to President Obama’s, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/rasmussen-52-percent-of-voters-say-their-views-are-more-like-palins-than-obamas-103291029.html

A strong tide should lift Republicans to victories in Senate races, with polls pointing to an ever-expanding list of states in play. Of the seats now held by Democrats, Republicans have a good to excellent chance of winning Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/548302/201009231926/Senate-Battle-Lines-Still-Shifting-As-GOP-Races-For-Control.aspx

Republican Pat Toomey has inched closer to majority support, leading Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak 50 percent to 43 percent in the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20100922_Poll__Toomey_leads_Sestak_in_Senate_race.html?cmpid=41144277

Tea Party candidate Sharron Angle is tied with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at 43 percent in the latest poll of the Nevada Senate race from Mason-Dixon Polling & Research.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/09/24/reid_and_angle_tied_in_nevada_senate_race_107300.html

House Republicans announced an expansive agenda called "A Pledge to America" that proposes to shrink the size of government and reform Congress, offering a conservative plan of action they will pursue if they win a majority in the midterm elections.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/22/AR2010092206144.html

The Republican Pledge to America: (a pretty big download)

http://www.gop.gov/resources/library/documents/solutions/a-pledge-to-america.pdf

Jonah Goldberg analyzes the pledge: “Conservatives shouldn’t look at the Pledge as the sum total of the Republican agenda. They should see it as the opening bid.”

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/247631/gop-s-ante-jonah-goldberg

President Obama's approval rating has hit another all-time low

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/09/24/obama.approval.poll/

The President was heckled multiple times during his speech at a Democratic fundraiser in one of the country’s most Democratic cities.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42585.html

"I'm one of your middle class Americans. And quite frankly, I'm exhausted. Exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for," a woman told President Obama at a DC town hall meeting.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/09/20/cnbc_town_hall_questioner_to_obama_im_exhausted_of_defending_you.html

Last Sunday the Obama family attended church for only the third time in a year. What is not widely reported is that the speaker that day was a Muslim who spoke about the need for a two-state solution in the Middle East.

http://www.thepostemail.com/2010/09/20/obama-goes-to-church-to-hear-a-muslim-speaker/

President Obama told Bob Woodward in a July interview that he didn't think about the Afghan war in the "classic" terms of the United States winning or losing. During the interview the president said, "We can absorb a terrorist attack…”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/21/AR2010092106706_pf.html

While NASA is busy studying global warming and doing Muslim outreach, China has announced the timetable for their first manned moon landing, as well as the launch of a space station, lab and probes to explore Mars and Venus.

http://china.globaltimes.cn/society/2010-09/575264.html

At a House subcommittee hearing, Democrats passed a bill to require federal health officials to “obtain, retain and analyze sexual identity information from patients who seek (government) healthcare, including children.”

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=39076

The Justice Department is ignoring civil rights cases that involve white victims and wrongly abandoned a voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party last year, a top department official said in prepared testimony Friday. He called the department's conduct a "travesty on justice."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/24/voting-rights-official-calls-black-panther-dismissal-travesty-justice/

In a 56-43 vote, Senate Democrats fell short of the 60 votes they needed to proceed to the 2011 defense authorization bill, which included language to repeal the Clinton-era “Don’t ask, don’t tell” law. All Senate Republicans and three Democrats voted to block debate on the bill.

http://thehill.com/news-by-subject/defense-homeland-security/120029-dadtnosenate-deals-blow-to-dont-ask-dont-tell-repeal

Here’s what Obama’s new “Gay Army” would have looked like: The Army’s Deputy Chief of Staff for personnel: "….these people opposing this new policy will need to get with the program, and if they can't, they need to get out. No matter how much training and education of those in opposition, you're always going to have those that oppose this on moral and religious grounds just like you still have racists today."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/sep/16/new-gay-army/

The Department of Homeland Security has wasted nearly a half billion dollars in taxpayer money on its current plans to develop technology to detect nuclear material being smuggled into the country, according to two recent GAO reports. “In this case, millions of dollars were wasted because one office did not talk to another office about what was needed……It's not good government, it's not best practices and in some cases it wasn't even common sense.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/23/reports-homeland-security-wasted-m-taxpayer-money-nuke-spending-border/?test=latestnews

Herman Cain is thinking about running for president, even though it’s likely you’ve never heard of him. The black Republican and former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza says he’s going to build a grassroots coalition of supporters from the bottom up.

http://dailycaller.com/2010/09/24/herman-cain-former-godfathers-pizza-ceo-is-contemplating-2012-run/

Part of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s belt-tightening plan for New Jersey was the termination of $7.5 million in public funding for Planned Parenthood clinics in the state, a decision Democrats in the legislature countermanded with a bill that cleared the Senate with a 30-10 vote — sufficient to override a veto. But when that veto came and the Democrats scheduled an override vote, Republicans in the legislature backed out, and the measure failed 23-17. Now, Planned Parenthood facilities in the state are shuttering their doors:

http://lucianne.com/thread/?artnum=566710

Just one and a half per cent of the UK population is gay or bisexual, well short of earlier Government estimates that put the proportion as high as seven per cent. This dispels the commonly held belief that one in ten men are homosexual, which stems from research into sexual behavior by Professor Kinsey in America during the 1940s and 50s.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/8020574/Gay-population-much-lower-than-believed-first-official-figures-show.html

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos have contributed $100,000 to defeat the Washington State income tax initiative 1098.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iuxQ-5VJatkI_StIK-ALBpQ-sHgAD9ICEV3G5

Conservative activists last Saturday picked Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) as their choice for president in 2012. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was voted the pick for vice president in 2012. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) was the runner-up in the straw poll very close behind Pence with a difference of 11 votes.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/polls/119583-pence-picked-as-best-presidential-material-at-conservative-summit

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

National Review 9/20

With the primary season complete, the terms of battle are set — for the general election and for the next era in American politics.

Barack Obama’s election in 2008 was said to constitute the next great wave of progressivism after FDR and LBJ. But a massive electoral backlash is brewing against his policies, all his stimuli have manifestly failed, and his party is increasingly in intellectual and political disarray (witness its agony on extending the Bush tax cuts). Obama may only have set the table for the third wave of conservative reform, the first instituted by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s and the second (and less consequential) by Newt Gingrich in the mid-1990s.

Who gets their next wave, and makes it endure, is the stakes in this election and beyond. In this monumental contest, a revitalized limited-government conservatism that says — that insists — “enough” is arrayed against a progressivism that says, in the title of William Voegeli’s compelling book on the ever-voracious welfare state, “never enough.”

Obama Democrats have created facts on the ground over the last two years that will take long work to reverse, most significantly the health-care law. But everything that has happened since its passage has served to make its repeal more likely rather than less — it has remained unpopular; practically every week has brought news of another unintended consequence or noxious, previously un-noticed provision; and Democrats are running from it, in a favorite phrase of Haley Barbour’s, “like scalded dogs.”

More important, the Republican party has remained resolute in opposition and will be even more so after November. A great purifying fire raced through the Republican party during the primaries. While conservatives might disagree with one another over this or that tactical judgment–notably the one involved in last week’s Delaware primary–all of us should cheer this season’s renewed vigor. In different context, Andrew Mellon famously spoke of “purging the rottenness.” That’s what the primaries have done, exposing and expunging those Republicans who have no greater commitment than to their (rather undistinguished) careers.

Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, now waging a write-in campaign, is the latest example. She began her Senate career on the strength of an unseemly act of nepotism (appointed by dear old dad) and will end it in an unseemly act of unprincipled desperation. Trading Murkowski, Arlen Specter, and Charlie Crist — all of whom lacked a minimal loyalty to party — for Joe Miller, Pat Toomey, and Marco Rubio will be a vast upgrade in talent, idealism, and persuasive power for Senate Republicans.

For years, conservatives have plaintively remarked, “if only we had another Reagan……” It was nostalgia as an excuse for not grappling with contemporary political circumstances. Not anymore. Conservatives have literally taken to the streets in a tea-party movement that doesn’t just reflect the political moment but largely defines it. If Democrats were foolhardy to take the 2008 election as a mandate for everything their hearts have ever desired, they were near-suicidal to persist in their course in the face of the tea-party protests of August 2009.

We can’t be sure exactly what the political landscape will look like after November, except that it will have shifted to the right. The stage will then be set for the fight for the presidency in 2012, which will be enormously consequential. In 2013, either President Obama consolidates his progressive achievements and builds on them in a way that irrevocably changes the country, or a conservative begins to return the country to its foundations. We are not even at the end of the beginning of this monumental contest, but win it, we must.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/247023/monumental-contest-editors

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS

“Washington elites' heads exploded when Christine O'Donnell won the Republican Senate primary in Delaware last week….They say O'Donnell has a problem because she's never held a job in the private sector (like our president), didn't pay her taxes (like our treasury secretary), and had her house foreclosed on (like half of the electorate). They also accuse her of saying crazy things -- but she's running for Joe Biden's old seat, so this may be an advantage. This week, all we've heard about is how O'Donnell once said she went on a date with a guy in high school who claimed to be a witch. (So what? Bill Clinton married one!).... I haven't seen hypocrisy like this since -- oh, that's right, since last week when CBS's Bob Schieffer attacked John Boehner for smoking, after two years of the media's ferociously avoiding the topic of Obama's cigarette habit.”

-Ann Coulter

"They're making a bundle inside the Beltway, while across the country it takes $2 million to create a pothole-filling job. Never has Washington spent so much to get so little real work. When the Democrats are in charge, the rich just get richer. Wait -- isn't that what we're supposed to say about Republicans? Not so when federal stimulus funds are being spent. Washington has taken trickle-down economics to a whole new level of inefficiency. Those closest -- literally -- to the seat of federal power get the most. By the time the funds make their long journey to paychecks for people doing productive work, there's not a whole lot left.”

-Investor's Business Daily

"Jimmy Carter told CBS News Thursday that Senator Teddy Kennedy killed his health care reform bill thirty years ago to deny him credit for it. Don't blame the senator. The health care reform bill knew better than to get into the car with Teddy when he'd been drinking."

-Argus Hamilton

"[I]f the recession has been over for 15 months, and this is how Obama and his handmaiden, Joe Biden, describe a recovery; then we should all party like it's 1929."

-Rich Galen

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LEFTIST WATCH

In a very unusual move, University of Illinois trustees denied giving emeritus status to controversial retired professor William Ayers. The vote was unanimous and came after a passionate speech by board chair Christopher Kennedy, son of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who said he could not confer the title "to a man whose body of work includes a book dedicated in part to the man who murdered my father." Kennedy was referring to a 1974 book co-authored by Ayers, which was dedicated to a long list of people including Robert Kennedy assassin Sirhan Sirhan and "all political prisoners in the U.S."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-ayers-denied-emeritus-20100923,0,5045265.story

The UK's tax collection agency is putting forth a proposal that all employers send employee paychecks to the government, after which the government would deduct what it deems as the appropriate tax and pay the employees what’s left.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/39265847

So chanting “USA, USA” at a football game is now jingoistic and anti Muslim? According to this University of Illinois professor, the answer is yes. He was also offended by the military plane flyover before the game.

http://www.dailyillini.com/opinions/letters-to-the-editor/2010/09/15/block-i-chant-portrays-neither-patriotism-nor-remembrance

“Communism has been proclaimed dead more than once in the past couple of decades. But today, it's safe to say, it is really dead. Irreversibly dead. Cemetery dead. Consider this comment from a knowledgeable Cuban observer who was asked if the country's brand of socialism, created by Fidel Castro after his 1959 revolution, could be of use in other countries: "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore." That remark would have gotten him in trouble with authorities, if his name were not Fidel Castro. There may yet be admirers of Cuban communism in certain precincts of Berkeley or Cambridge, but it's hard to find them in Havana….”

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-oped-0919-chapman-20100919,0,4342554.column

At least for a few moments last week, we had the strange spectacle of President Obama sounding more like a collectivist than Fidel Castro.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/547856/201009201845/Statists-Fidel-Castro-And-Barack-Obama-And-The-Irrationality-Of-Central-Planning.aspx

Vladimir Lenin said that westerners too dumb to recognize his plans to "hang them" would "sell me the rope -- on credit." And they did, engaging in decades of excuse-making for Communist totalitarianism. But without the Soviets around, the American left needed new anti-western totalitarians to mollify, and the leaders of militant Islam satisfied that itch.

http://spectator.org/archives/2010/09/23/the-sharia-compliant-american

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ISLAM

“This study is the result of months of analysis, discussion and drafting by a group of top security policy experts (including a former Director of the CIA) concerned with the preeminent totalitarian threat of our time: the legal-political-military doctrine known within Islam as "shariah." It is designed to provide a comprehensive and articulate "second opinion" on the official characterizations and assessments of this threat as put forth by the United States government.”

http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/p18523.xml

“A week has passed since the report “Shariah: The Threat to America” was released and the only reaction seems to be coming from Islamic sites…..America desperately needs this document. I cannot think of a better way to educate the population. If only they would read it. Once they have read it even the staunchest liberals will be forced to pause and think.”

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/09/why_is_there_no_reaction_to_sh.html

The Ground Zero mosque imam was caught on microphone in 2006 speaking about his “game plan” for achieving an Islamic State without borders, which — in his mind — has previously existed and should have continued to exist, if not for Western interference in the last century. The imam also discussed some of his other objectives which include: (1) manipulating U.S. foreign policy, (2) advocating for Hamas and (3) getting “power” on his side to push back the opposing “interests.”

http://frontpagemag.com/2010/09/22/ground-zero-imam-exposed-off-mic/?utm_source=FrontPage+Magazine&utm_campaign=8b8db51af8-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email

Larry Elder: “What happens when an Australian Muslim cleric calls for the beheading of a Dutch politician? Not much. What happens when an American pastor no one ever heard of threatens to burn a Quran? It ignites an international outcry.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=1181170

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BOOKS, FILES

Early in his administration, President Reagan confidently asserted that "America's best days lie ahead." At the time it was true, but noted economist Thomas Sowell thinks it's no longer the case. In his new book, "Dismantling America," Sowell argues that this nation is becoming one that many Americans no longer recognize as the country they grew up in or expected to pass on to their children and grandchildren. Rather, like Rome, America may be entering a prolonged period of decline. Sowell sat down with IBD recently to discuss the political, social and economic forces that are leading to this decline and what, if anything, can reverse it.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/548149/201009221917/America-In-Decline-Sowell-Says-Citing-Spending-And-Intl-Policy.aspx

“Never Enough: America's Limitless Welfare State” by William Voegeli. “William Voegeli may be the most valuable, engaging and original critic of liberalism writing today….Never Enough answers questions most people struggle even to articulate,.” says Jonah Goldberg. “Even though the federal government’s outlays have doubled every eighteen years since 1940, liberal rhetoric is always addressed to a nation trapped in Groundhog Day, where every year is 1932, and none of the existing welfare state programs that spend tens of billions of dollars matter, or even exist…..Never Enough explores the roots and consequences of liberals’ aphasia about the welfare state’s ultimate size. It assesses what liberalism’s lack of a limiting principle says about the long-running argument between liberals and conservatives…. Never Enough argues that the failure to speak clearly and candidly about the welfare state’s limits has grave policy consequences. The worst result, however, is the way it has jeopardized the experiment in self-government by encouraging Americans to regard their government as a vehicle for exploiting their fellow-citizens, rather than as a compact for respecting one another’s rights and safeguarding the opportunities of future generations.”

http://www.amazon.com/Never-Enough-Americas-Limitless-Welfare/dp/1594033765/ref=sr_1_1?s=gateway&ie=UTF8&qid=1285352911&sr=8-1

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ACTIVISM

Kirby Wilbur: “The election is six weeks from tomorrow, and it’s time, we need your help. Our November is Coming campaign plans on distributing voter education material in a number of legislative districts around the state by door dropping key precincts and calling voters. We cannot achieve success and change the destructive policies of Congress and the state legislature without you. It’s time to stop the talk and do the walk! Please, contact us today at afpwa2010@gmail.com and volunteer to help educate voters in these districts. To restore America by returning to free market and limited government policies. This is the most important election in our lifetimes. Wake up the morning of Wednesday, November 3rd, knowing you made a difference.”

Jim Geraghty of National Review lists twenty House candidates who can use your support. Two of them are here in Washington State.

John Koster, Washington's 2nd district: "Koster outpolled Larsen by 298 votes in the August primary and last week earned recognition from the National Republican Congressional Committee, which paves the way for party financing in the general election. Koster has raised almost $500,000, still far below Larsen's $1.1 million but enough to boost Koster's profile nationally.

Jaime Herrera, Washington's 3rd district: Already, huge amounts of money are being committed to this race: "The National Republican Campaign Committee, upping the ante in the closely watched 3rd congressional district race, confirmed last week that it will spend $900,000 on TV ads in the Portland media market to support state Rep. Jaime Herrera. Last week, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced it had reserved $650,000 in air time for TV ads backing the Democratic candidate.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/247180/twenty-candidates-who-need-help-jim-geraghty?page=3

Geraghty should have listed this one as well:

Dick Muri is within three percentage points of incumbent Democrat Adam Smith….Stretching from Renton to Tacoma to Olympia, the 9th district has been represented by Smith for 14 years. In the August primary, the Democrat got 51%. But in that election, Republicans split their vote between two candidates and now, it appears the Republican vote has united behind Dick Muri, a former Air Force officer and Pierce County Councilmember.

http://blog.thenewstribune.com/politics/2010/09/20/king-tvsurvey-usa-polls-has-9th-district-race-closer-than-thought/#ixzz10Cg9s6es

Lets make Washington a red state again! Call, make a donation, and ask them how you can help!

http://www.kosterforcongress.com/

http://www.jaimeherrera.com/

http://www.dickmuri.com/

Seattle Times endorses 1053: “INITIATIVE 1053, which would require a two-thirds vote of each house of the Legislature on any bill to raise taxes, or a majority vote of the public, will be on the November ballot…. and The Seattle Times supports it. The people have supported a two-thirds requirement three times already, and the Legislature has at various times set it aside. We believe the people will support it again.”

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorials/2012415318_edit22initiative1053.html

Oprah Winfrey has joined the nationwide movement to expand charter schools. “I am giving to each of these charter school networks the sum of $1 million. A million dollars to you, to you, to you, to you, to you, and to you. YAAAY!" Oprah was joined by Bill Gates and Michelle Rhee. They discussed the new documentary "Waiting for Superman," soon showing everywhere across the nation. This documentary shows that union interests block the growth of charter schools in every state. Olympia lawmakers have made charters illegal, so Washington's students will not receive any of the support pouring into these schools from Oprah, Bill Gates, and Goldman Sachs. This money will instead be spent in the 40 states which permit charter schools. Students in Washington will continue to stand on the sidelines, watching as adult union interests repeatedly veto their chances at a charter school education.”

http://washingtonpolicyblog.typepad.com/washington_policy_center_/2010/09/state-ban-means-washington-students-lose-out-as-oprah-hands-out-6-million-for-charter-schools.html

“Waiting for Superman” is opening locally next weekend. Stand for Children and Washington Policy Center are offering free tickets for Fri, Oct 1, 5:30pm at AMC Theater in Pacific Place, 600 Pine, Seattle and Sat Oct 2, 5:30 at Lincoln Square Cinema in Bellevue. To get free tickets, rsvp by Sept 27^th to aerekson@stand.org

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GLOBALONEY

From the administration that brought you "man-caused disaster" and "overseas contingency operation," another terminology change is in the pipeline. The White House wants the public to start using the term "global climate disruption" in place of "global warming".

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/16/white-house-global-warming-global-climate-disruption/

The future King of England: "I happily talk to the plants and trees, and listen to them. I think it's absolutely crucial," the prince says. "Everything I've done here, it's like almost with your children. Every tree has a meaning for me."

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/prince-charles-eavesdrops-tourists-speaks-plants/story?id=11679656

If not disposed of properly, CFL light bulbs, which Congress is mandating as an energy efficient alternative to incandescent bulbs, may poison you, contaminate your food and water supply, destroy the environment and kill your children. If light bulbs were regulated like cigarettes, this is what it might say on the side of the box of “environmentally friendly” bulbs that you just picked up at Target.

http://dailycaller.com/2010/09/23/how-many-congressmen-does-it-take-to-screw-in-a-light-bulb/

With the ignominious collapse of cap and trade legislation in the Senate, the climate campaign is licking its wounds and wondering where it went wrong. Greens are pointing fingers at the bad economy, the Senate’s 60-vote threshold, and those dastardly Earth-hating Republicans. But they ought to look in the mirror, for the fault lies with themselves. Politico’s environmental reporter Darren Samuelsohn quoted an anonymous White House official speaking disdainfully about the climate campaign’s efforts: “They didn’t deliver a single Republican. They spent like $100 million, and they weren’t able to get a single Republican convert on the bill.”

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/environmental-hazards

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ARTICLES

Grover Norquist’s advice to conservatives: “Between now and the November 2 election there are several dangers that stand between conservatives and the overwhelming victory that present polls predict. The first threat flows from complacency, hubris, laziness, a sense that victory is already ours. The polling data tell us that Americans want to vote for Republican more than Democrats, against those who voted for Obamacare and for those who oppose higher taxes. Of course, this assumes that “present trends continue.” If we work hard, harder and hardest then today’s cheerful polling data can be the harbinger of victory when real votes by real people are counted on November 2. The second threat is that of distraction by “shiny things.” Many issues pop up and politicians and talk show hosts are intrigued and tempted to spend precious minutes talking about new and exciting issues rather than focus on the spending that threatens our future.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/09/21/grover-norquist-way-forward-conservatives-november-election-newt-gingrich/

“The press is obsessed that Delaware Republican Senate nominee, Christine O'Donnell said that as a high-school student she hung out with kids who styled themselves witches. For this we're now to conclude that she's unfit to serve in the Congress of the United States A body composed of individuals of the most admirable rectitude. Apparently none of them ever did anything silly in high school. Furthermore, we do know that O'Donnell similarly falls short of standards set by Democratic law makers and chief executives because she never drove drunk off a bridge.”

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/09/things_christine_odonnell_didn.html

“The same media that didn’t give a damn what Barack Obama did during the first 46 years of his life when he was running for president (except that he was organizing communities) is now in a full scale sprint to find out what Republican candidates did as kids.”

http://bigjournalism.com/rfutrell/2010/09/20/so-msm-what-did-you-do-in-high-school/

“The Tea Party victories of last week have clearly revealed the movement for what it actually is: not a tantrum, not a voter mutiny, not a short-term insurrection, but something never actually seen before in this country -- it is a counter-revolution.”

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/09/the_counterrevolution_has_begu.html

“The media doesn’t get it, says Kirsten Powers. The Tea Party crowd is about to radically reshape the Republican Party on a scale not seen since Barry Goldwater in the 1960s. It’s time to stop mocking the Tea Party. Whether they are loons, principled conservatives, or a mix of both, they are a potent force that won’t be intimidated off the national stage by snarky media coverage and clueless attacks from the establishment.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-09-16/stop-ridiculing-the-tea-party/?cid=hp:beastoriginalsC4

The Tea Party Patriots' Facebook page, had 436,767 fans as of Wednesday. That compares with 135,726 Facebook fans of the Republican Party and 122,099 fans of the official Facebook page for the Democratic Party, acclaimed for using the Internet and other technology two years ago to carry President Obama and others into office.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/548152/201009221919/Tea-Party-Movement-A-Political-Tsunami-Thanks-To-Internet.aspx

Examiner Editorial: Obamacare is even worse than critics thought. Obamacare won't decrease health care costs for the government. As written, Obamacare covers elective abortions, contrary to Obama's promise that it wouldn't. Obamacare won't allow employees or most small businesses to keep the coverage they have and like. Obamacare will increase insurance premiums -- in some places, it already has. Obamacare will force seasonal employers -- especially the ski and amusement park industries -- to pay huge fines, cut hours, or lay off employees. Obamacare forces states to guarantee not only payment but also treatment for indigent Medicaid patients. Obamacare imposes a huge nonmedical tax compliance burden on small business. Obamacare allows the IRS to confiscate part or all of your tax refund if you do not purchase a qualified insurance plan.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Obamacare-is-even-worse-than-critics-thought-960772-103571664.html#ixzz10MaeU0yK

“We now have confirmation that Barack Obama truly loves poor people. Because he is creating so many of them. The Census Bureau reports that America suffers with more people in poverty now than ever before in its history of reporting on poverty -- 44 million. That's up nearly 4 million in the last year alone, with the poverty rate shooting up to 14.3%. One in seven Americans now suffers in poverty. That follows the report that foreclosures hit their all time high in August, up 25% over a year earlier in August, 2009”

http://spectator.org/archives/2010/09/22/the-disgrace-of-the-ruling-cla

To the working class citizens of Bell, California, their hard-earned cash got them a sleazy, overpaid and corrupt government run by Democrats. The government officials got rich. Today, thankfully, eight of them – every single one a Democrat – also got arrested. Former City Manager Robert Rizzo, who earned nearly $800,000 a year, was joined in the pokey by the mayor, two council members, two former council members, an assistant city manger and, my favorite, the “vice mayor.”

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/09/21/bell-chime-freedom/

The final word on which is the “party of the rich’: “Wealthy individuals voted for Obama, Wealthy counties voted for Obama, Wealthy states voted for Obama…..The problem is that the Democrats try to position themselves as the party of the poor and demonize the Republican Party as that of the rich. The fact is, the Democrats are the buddies of the rich elite and heavily supported by them - and in fact most of their politicians consist of the rich.”

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/Examiner-Opinion-Zone/Party-of-the-rich-103092754.html#ixzz0znYcK1xM

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

The Mama Grizzly is going hunting. Sarah Palin is celebrating the six-month anniversary of Obamacare by creating a website targeting Democrats who backed "Obamacare." The website’s aim is to kick out 20 Democratic members of Congress who voted for Obama's health care bill and who came from districts that the McCain-Palin won in 2008.

http://www.takebackthe20.com/

Sarah on Facebook: “Lies, Damned Lies – Obamacare 6 Months Later..”

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=433315368434

Sarah explains the Tea Party in a new video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X67qgNtZPdQ

PoliticalFables has an excellent video out entitled "Defeating the Obama Machine."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H64N_uYA35Y

A powerful new anti-Barack Obama ad that seeks to tap not the nation's anger but its sadness. "Mourning in America," is a poignant takeoff of Ronald Reagan's iconic "Morning in America".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YXqf_6ug54

“Not recommended for anyone with eye trouble of any kind.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EER9Vno3Cjo

The cutest political ad you’ve ever seen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGqq7pYzrjA

Gansta Government:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmBjG7ALvjc

Launch of the world’s largest (36 feet) amateur rocket, built in a garage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj4lj6YSwzg

The Ambassadors of Harmony, barbershop chorus champions:

http://lucianne.com/article/?pageid=shave_and_a_haircut

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LATE NITE

Jay Leno: Larry Summers, President Obama's top economic adviser, is stepping down. Finally, some good economic news….. I wanted to watch "Dancing With the Stars" last night, but I have Direct TV and I signed up for the "heterosexual programming package."….. Al-Qaida’s No. 2 has released another tape in which he criticized the Pakistani government. He calls them incompetent and corrupt, and demands that they be thrown out of office. Sounds like they have a tea party over there too….. Apparently the recession ended last June. So for those of you that are still broke and without a job, it’s all in your head.

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WISE WORDS

"The history of government management of money has, except for a few short happy periods, been one of incessant fraud and deception."

-Fredrich von Hayek

"It is not the function of the government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error."

-Justice Robert H. Jackson

"The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public moneys."

-Thomas Jefferson