They say Obama is channeling Reagan. Does anybody believe that? How can anyone in the media who was alive during the Reagan years let Obama get away with that? Pimps, that’s what the Lamestreamers are. . . but not The Washington Times.

Listen to President Reagan as he speaks about the Challenger disaster, January 28, 1986:

“We mourn seven heroes … who escaped the surly bounds of Earth to touch the face of God.”

Notice how in a little over 4 minutes, Reagan explained the tragedy to school age kids, bucked up the NASA workers and reassured all Americans. That’s leadership.

Now, think about any of the recent Obama Speeches. Contrast Obama’s professor-speak with Reagan. Reagan was can-do. Obama is undo. It’s midnight in America.

For Those With a Short Memory, We Didn’t Start the Fire.*

Well now. The Democrats got their clocks cleaned in November. Voters took them to the woodshed and when the spankin was over, the Republicans once again owned the House and made significant gains in the Senate. Shell-shocked (they shouldn’t have been) Democrats said oh well, we’re ramming through everything possible during the lame duck session. And they did.

For Republicans, the 2010 lame duck session was more like the “limp Richard” session. The GOP leadership just couldn’t get their, uh, um, courage up for the holiday brawls. So, they got rolled into more spending and more big government because they couldn’t stand up to being targeted as the “party of no.” After winning a streetfight of an election on the shoulders of a reawakened and ready to rumble citizenry, the ruling elite Republican leadership immediately went back to their old playbook for the whole month of December. In so doing they let Obama back in the game.

When at last the new Congress was called to order, Speaker Boehner barely got the gavel from Nancy Pelosi when tragedy struck in Arizona. Mass shootings are shocking and always grab the American public by the heart. When a congresswoman is critically wounded and six innocents, including a federal judge are killed, there is no other news people care to hear. Congress closed for a week to show respect. The Republicans called for prayer. The Democrats and their friends went straight to “Blame Righty.”

With the country in limbo trying to understand what happened, the dejected and depraved far left seized upon the Tucson massacre as a way to thwart the momentum of the right. They have been seething against and lying about the tea party people for 2 years. Fresh off a massive political defeat, they know the name of that truck that hit them. They know the truck driver, too. The Democrats, the MSM media and the crazy left are going all out to shut up and shut down that which they fear will be their end. They are in full throat, using innuendo and the most provocative language to try to get the Indies to believe the Tea Party and Republicans are provoking violence. Yeah, the guilty dogs Dupniks are barking.

All this may be having an impact. I hear the Republicans are considering removing the language “job killing” from their bill to repeal Obamacare. Yep. You just cannot fix stupid.

Here’s the deal Speaker Boehner and minority leader McConnell. You too, Mr Priebus. We common folks are eye-balling you hard. If the hair isn’t standing up on the back of your neck, it should be. We are telling you: Don’t make nice! We didn’t hire you to give us more big government. We hired you to blow up Obamacare and to shoot-down Obama’s statist agenda that has been thrust upon us. We expect tough talk and a “go to the mattresses” effort. Anything less and we, the people, spank YOU in 2012.

Now, you big dogs, and the rest of the Republican caucus too, need think about that while you are playing patty-cake with the Democrat next to you during the State of the Union. You may think it a clever stunt, but while you pose for comity comedy before the cameras, the left is planning to finish us off. They will do anything and say anything to accomplish that.

What? Speak up, Mr. Speaker. You say you got it now? Great, go forth and slay the statist dragons. When circumstances work against you, don’t retreat, reload.** We expect you to govern as if you have a death-grip on the Constitution and no, that is not rhetorical.

---

*There is no equivalency between the vicious rhetoric of the left and the political metaphors of the right. The American left lost it’s mind and whatever soul it had in the early George W years. Who are the real hate mongers? They are of the left. They are here and here h/t Moe Lane.

**Dont retreat, reload, as in “don’t give up and try harder.” You knew that. Now, what does this lefty mean?

Potentially, a government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. -Ayn Rand

When President Obama said he wanted a civilian security force as well funded and supplied as our military, what was he talking about? It seems he was thinking about Big Sis and her department. With the TSA, walking point, the president’s wish is close to being fulfilled. Yeah, when the TSA says jump, you better darn well ask how high.

Obama’s civilian security force was at the top of its game during the holiday rush at Austin Bergstom International Airport:

<”“>
If you can’t see the video go here.

Nice Christmas gift to a lady trying to visit her family. Is she a crank? I suppose that’s possible, but bottom line, she was arrested and dragged through the airport by police because she didn’t want a government agent to feel her breasts. It’s not like we haven’t seen other examples of the TSA abusing the traveling public, here, here and here.

What did the TSA say about this latest incident in Austin?

“Our officers are trained to treat all passengers with dignity and respect. Security is not optional.”

Security? What security? How many terrorists has the TSA caught? I think that would be zero. How many moms have been put though the wringer for trying to board with breast milk? Too many. How have we come to a point that our own government expects us to surrender our privacy and our constitutional rights? Listen to Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano defending the indefensible TSA methods again just this past Sunday:

Napolitano dismissed a recent news report about major airports failing secrets tests designed to get contraband such as guns and knives past security screeners. The report said some airports had a 70 percent failure rate.

“Many of them are very old and out of date and there were all kinds of methodology issues with them. Let’s set those aside,” she said on “State of the Union” on CNN. “We pick up more contraband with the new procedures and the new machinery.” (h/t Breitbart TV)

Here’s the Janet in Wonderland reality: The best security air passengers have is not the TSA but their fellow passengers who, time and again, have restrained on board terrorists before they could kill everybody on board. The TSA? Oh, they confiscate toothpaste and even occasionally seize a gun some business guy forgot to put in his checked luggage. Mostly what the TSA does is FAIL.

So what’s all this “TSA enhanced security” about? While they have demonstrated there is no form of humiliation too drastic to inflict on the majority of Americans, they just will not do the one thing that might really work. You know . . . profiling those most likely to be terrorists. Why not . . . and why does it seem many TSA agents would barely qualify for the night shift at Pizza Hut? Heh, just recruiting where there’s warm bodies and everybody makes mistakes.

Is our government using the perpetual threat of terrorist attack to condition the American people to accepting even the unconstitutional authority of the government? You’ve heard people interviewed after one of these TSA incidents. Inevitably the soundbite is: “Well, I don’t like it, but if it keeps me safe, I am OK with it.” Surrender like that is music to the ears of the insider, big government crowd. They are feeling so good about it, the ruling elite got themselves exempted from TSA security. Hey, groping is for the little people.

And for elderly amputees:

Look at those guilty eyes. Don’t you feel better knowing the the TSA gave this killer a good going over?

The government should have our safety top of mind. Instead the government seems most interested in forcing Americans to submit to their authority. Why? Clearly, the tea party folks scared the dickens out of the insiders. When the Kennedy seat fell from Democrat hands and Mike Lee beat Bennett in the Republican primary in Utah, alarm bells went off for both Democrats and insider Republicans. It definitely wasn’t safe for them any more. The tea party rabble needed a reminder about who holds the real power. Suddenly, government agents need to feel your privates. Weren’t you proud how our Republican Senate leaders rushed to condemn the TSA abuse? Yeah, me too.

At what point will the security sheep* have a problem? Will they strip and go willingly to the government “showers”? It’s not like it has never happened. It took only a little more than a decade of conditioning. Never again? Yeah, sounds crazy, but 10 years ago we would have thought it stupid-crazy our own government would ever want to grope us and our children too.
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*RedState diarist, Ron Robinson

I was unpacking some Christmas lights today that were wrapped in old newspapers. I am late again with this chore. I struggle dealing with things I don’t like to do. That’s normal, isn’t it?

I noticed from one of the old, crinkled newspaper pages that the big national story of December 29, 2002, was that extended unemployment benefits had expired the day before. Pundits were fretting that 26 weeks were not enough because 800,000 Americans had just been cut-off. Back then, President Bush made it clear he was ready to restore the extended benefits and NY Senator Hillary Clinton was trying to make sure he did.

Washington Post, December 29, 2002, by Dana Milbank:

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-NY, delivered the Democrats’ weekly radio address, and she blamed Republicans for the failure to extend unemployment benefits.

“In the recession of the early 1990s we increased benefits five times,” she said. “Today, our unemployment rate has soared to 6 percent, and Congress and the president have extended benefits only once - and once is not enough.”

Now, eight years later, President Barak Obama has cut a deal with with a resurgent Republican party to keep the current Bush tax rates in place for 2 years in exchange for 13 months of extended unemployment plus some other expensive add-ons.

Democrats don’t like the deal and many Republicans are recoiling at the cost of extending unemployment benefits for 13 months. Democrats are mad that Obama is not punishing the “rich” with higher tax rates and a confiscatory Estate tax. Republicans think it is unwise to spend another 60 billion on extended unemployment. It is.

So what’s new about Democrats arguing with Republicans about tax rates and unemployment benefits? Same as it ever was? Not exactly. In December, 2002 unemployment was 6 percent and Congress extended unemployment benefits 13 weeks. In 2010, unemployment is near 10 percent and benefits are about to be extended 13 months, if Speaker Pelosi can get her lame ducks to go along.

What else is new? In 2002, the federal deficit was a little less than 160 billion which was less than 2% of GDP. Today, we are looking at a deficit of 1.29 trillion. On a 2010 GDP of 14.7 trillion, that’s a deficit of nearly 9 percent of GDP! Yeah, it is time to be scared.

The United States is on a path that is leading to a financial disaster. This is true even though receipts to the federal treasury will increase in 2010 over 2009. Even with federal receipts increasing we have trillion dollar deficits forecast well into the future. Who can bail out the United States?

Were ifs and buts, candy and nuts, we’d all have a Merry Christmas. If the the Fed could print money without consequence, we’d have a booming economy. The truth is a lot of Americans are not going to have a very Merry Christmas this year and the economy is poor.

Americans aren’t dumb, but we’ve done everything we can to avoid dealing with the real problem. That’s normal, isn’t it?

Do these guys have the right stuff? Do they have any idea at all what drove the November election results?
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They did it again. They went wobbly. The Republican leadership doesn’t believe in the message the voters sent just a mere 5 weeks ago. They just proved it by agreeing to more big spending and more nanny statism. One begets the other as history proves. It works the same way at the top of the Republican party.

Tea Party folks and conservatives just got poked in the eye. Again. Get used to it.

Modified Chicken Crap. . . that is what this tax deal between Obama and the ruling elite Republicans amounts to. Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker to be John Boehner agreed with Obama to extend unemployment insurance for another thirteen months. Folks, a couple can conceive, give birth and have a baby beginning to walk in that amount of time. Thirteen MORE months? I swear, are these guys Republicans or Social Democrats? Is America now France?

For this extension and some other expensive “stimulus”, the not so wise old men at the top of the Republican party were able to maintain the status quo on tax rates. The status quo was all they could get. Democrats were badly punished just five weeks ago at the polls. A disproportionate number of highly endangered Senate Democrats are up in 2012 and all the Republicans could get was the status quo.

Think about that and what was given up to get it. The unemployment benefits alone will cost over 50 billion. I am not sure what the 2% reduction in employment taxes costs but it’s got to be a huge hit. The people that are most likely to need and use their social security benefits will now have even less skin in the game. Without an adjustment to benefits or at least the age qualifier, well, maybe we can bust the system sooner and move straight into whatever is next. That could be a failed country, but whatever, nobody can touch FDR’s lame legacy.

I know a lot of folks are thinking, well, at least we have some certainty of what our tax liabilities will be. Two years isn’t a lot to plan on and it just happens to put this issue right back on the front burner, just in time for 2012. You say you think it is a sure loser for Obama? We don’t know what the political landscape will be then. We have seen Republicans time and again fumble away issues they should own. I remember thinking Clinton was toast in 1995 and then Gingrich lost his mind and then his nerve. All I know is if Dick Morris says this deal is a total capitulation by Obama, I’m really worried. Sorry Dick, but in the last decade, what have you gotten right?

Maybe this deal seemed like smart politics (for the moment) to the Republicans. Is that what Americans just voted for? More of the same? When will we draw the line on the insane spending? Must all states go the California way?

Republicans must find the courage to tell Americans out of work for two years that their old jobs are not coming back, not ever. I know it is hard and the truth can be mean, but in the truth is a chance for a new beginning. In the spirit of Truman, I offer the truth as I know it and it may seem like hell. No, hell is when the government has stolen your initiative and allegiance for a weekly check.

It’s time to go back to work America. It may be time to start fresh, maybe at less money in a new career. It may be time to move. Our forefathers moved across a whole continent. Surely we can move to another city or state if that is what it takes to find work. It might even be time to go on welfare, for a time, while the long climb back takes its course. Anything but sitting and waiting and drawing a government unemployment check. It’s bad for the soul to lay about and idle hands will make deals with personal demons.

It was courage and work ethic built this country. Lives can be rebuilt with the same right stuff. Wouldn’t you cheer if Republican leaders looked the American people in the eye and said we can not rebuild on the false promises and lies of the left and really meant it? When will they start to govern like they believe in capitalism and the Constitution?

Good Grief. Just take a look at this sorry display and clearly the angry, clueless ruling class Democrats are doing the pouting. Senator McCaskill admits to class warfare . . . even brags about it. (H/T Gateway Pundit)
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It will not fly, madame. What else do you have besides class warfare to try mute the real message of the election . . . and the crummy employment news? Wow, 9.8% employment. It’s enough to make every DEMONcrat want to get out of Dodge. I hear Afghanistan is lovely in December. OK, it’s not, but Bagram was good enough for Obama.

Oh Clueless Claire, we know what you wish you could do. You’d like to turn the clock back and pretend it is January 2009 again. High times for the likes of you but then we had this wave thingy. You remember. . . even if you pretend you don’t. The people were saying enough. Enough already! Stirred them up, you did. They even started reading about our founding history and the Constitution. What’s a super-progressive gal to do about that?

Did you hear them, Senator? Sure you did, but you said to heck with them and went back to the statist checklist. What was the first thing you and your friends did when when the lame ducks came back? You gave even more power to the federal government. Bad for the small farmer and passed with the endorsement from the bigs.

I’m still trying to figure out how higher food prices and damaging small farmers is good for the middle class you say you support. Forgive me if I am slow on the uptake. I never earned one of those fancy sheepskins, but I’ve hired enough people to know they’ll shrug if you micromanage them.

Senator, you just gave us a bigger government. Admit it. It felt so good didn’t it? You showed the rabble how the cow eats the cabbage. For good measure you told them how the cabbage will be grown. Shrug?

Claire, you are up in 2012 and voters of Missouri will remember this and this. Oh how you and your union pals pined for card check.

Then there’s the the clip below, too. The one where you say “I don’t know what else I can do?” Hey, clueless, you’ve done much more than much too much.

The truth is, Senator, you knew exactly what you would do. You were going to vote for every piece of Obama and Reid statism that came before you. And you did it with gusto, too. Well, choices and votes have consequences. The show me state just might show you how that works.

Face it, the people of Missouri are just not that into you and never have been. In 2006, a Democrat year, you barely edged out Jim Talent. You say your not worried? You should be. There is a line forming to take a shot at you. Yeah, you are a marked woman . . . marked for defeat. The only thing missing is a new Palin map with you in the crosshairs. Can you smell the tea?

Senator McCaskill, here is a suggestion for you: Just shrug.

Something is wrong with this picture.
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Black Friday. They certainly got the name right because its appeal is to our darker angels. The toys and gadgets we buy are only stuff and stuff doesn’t last. Possessions can not mend the troubled heart. Are Americans that bored and desperate for amusement? Yes, many are. Some are crazed and here’s proof. Will the latest toy or the thrill of the deal really make us happy? For how long? In our hearts we know the truth. In the end, all is dust.

Black Friday fever isn’t just a one day event. Not any more. It has become a state of mind. It is materialism gone mad. It will be the end of our civil society if it continues.

Our stuff distracts us from reality and those important things which we do not want to face. Indeed, it is hard (and inconvenient) to contemplate why we are here and how it came to be. What exactly is on the other side of the other side? Put down your iPad long enough to admit you do not have the answer. Who does? It aint Apple or Sony nor the Ginzu knife peddler.

The chronic concern with our own amusement is all the worse in the face of current events. We are a country at war abroad. There’s a war of sorts at home too, one that will determine whether the Constitution really means anything or is just a quaint dead letter that was killed by the living, breathing mentality. Surely such things matter much more than saving $50 at your favorite super box. Time to shift focus?

Those people on the street interviews (you’ve heard them on Hannity and elsewhere) are pretty scary. The corner hipsters know nothing that matters and too much that matters not at all. Lady Ga-Ga? Really? They live for moment and personal amusement. They will run over you at Best Buy too, if the latest Apple whatever is on sale. If only it was just “them”, the undone people acting in this way, but it is our friends and neighbors too. It is those who were never taught better and those who know better but can’t stop themselves. Don’t let it be you. Somebody taught you, right?

You can overcome boredom and the desire for desires. Having real friends and caring about them and talking to them face to face is good for us. Political activism and community involvement give a purpose to one’s life far more meaningful than the latest app for the iPhone. For many millions of people, a relationship with G-d is the only way to patch that hole in the soul. Your free will may go another way, but can you tell us what is on the other side of the other side?

Anyway, I hope this holiday season we will all take the time to truly talk to our friends and families. A lot of people are really hurting . . . many are without jobs and some are without hope. They could use a hand and maybe a c-note, if you can spare it. At the least you can spare a little of your time. This is something I must do myself . . . make the time.

Children and young people watch our every move. They learn from us, for better or worse. For them, and for yourself, be this guy.

When you see the next ad for the one day only, $199 Xbox, think it over. Do you need it so badly or is there someone who needs you more? Love your family and your friends more than your stuff. It’s your choice and your time and it’s good for only one place in time. Make it count and rejoice.

Normally, when someone has been fired from a job, he or she is required to pack up all belongings and vacate the premises by the end of the day. That person is no longer accountable and may no longer act in the best interests of the employer.

On Election Day, the American people issued pink slips to dozens of members of Congress and sent a clear vote of no-confidence in the party that has been in power for the past two years. But, because the mass firings do not take effect until noon on Jan. 3, defeated and retiring members of Congress remain on the job with essentially no accountability to their constituents.

Dan Stein, Washington Times
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Despite a shellacking at the polls, the Democrats have little remorse for the abuse they heaped upon Americans. Heck, they even kept the same starting quarterback . . . the one who said you have to throw the pass before you know who catches it. Why would they keep Pelosi in charge? Why?

Whatever, it seems Pelosi wants to throw up a few more ducks while the lames are in session. She and her counterpart over in the Senate have their dreams.

Before they can get to their prefered agenda items, there is the matter of a really sick economy and the Bush tax cuts that are set to expire. You know, the actual stimulus that saved us from 9-11 and brought the country to full employment . . . a fact that the Democrats deny to this day. But what are they going to do when four years of Democrat congressional control finds the country with a stated unemployment rate of 9.6%? They make stuff up, that’s what. No, really, Obama “created or saved” 3 million jobs. Can you believe he expects us to believe such a whopper? Why? Why does he?

The extension of the tax cuts has long been anticipated and is built into the markets already. Most pundits feel sure the lame duck congress is going to keep most or all of the Bush tax cuts. If we can get the whole package, they can call it manna from the Obamaessiah for all I care. If they do nothing, well, let’s not think like Glenn Beck. I don’t have room for a year’s worth of food.

There are so many hurdles out there ahead for the economy that I fear for the next several years. Old Ben Bernanke is begging for more stimulus on top of his QE2. But don’t you peasants pay any mind to that. Look over here —-> Hey America, Government Motors shines brightly as it emerges from bankruptcy. Yeah, don’t pay any attention to the price of gold and commodities and don’t worry about that 600 billion just dumped into the economy. It’s a good thing. Goldman Sachs said so. The Oracle isn’t so down with QE2, but old Warren loved the first stimulus as much as he loves his stacks.

The economy might be on a much better course if we had taken our medicine in ‘09. As it is, all the wealth destruction and dislocation from the meltdown has not yet taken its full toll. Nobody can even guess, especially the fools at this link, how much Fannie and Freddie will cost. Worst of all, we’ve sent very bad populist messages in the name of fairness.

I was listening to RedState’s Erick Erickson on the radio a few weeks ago. He was talking to some whining lib and he said, “Hold on. I’m looking . . . I’m looking and no . . . I don’t see it in there. The word “fair” is no where in the Constitution.”

That is a powerful and meaningful observation. Ignoring and abusing the Constitution has led us where we are today. The government has usurped the churches and private charity. The results have been disastrous and of course the worst of it has fallen on the low-born. Plantation government doesn’t allow runaway low-borns and its only crop is the next generation of dependents.

Now, today, the effects of an overbearing and overly “helpful” government are moving upstream. The Feds are no longer happy to have their hands in your wallet, they want to grab the family jewels, as well. They say it’s the only fair way to keep us safe. Profiling wouldn’t be fair. There’s that word again.

How did these statists become some bold? They are right up in our faces and everywhere else. They say we give up our rights when we buy an airline ticket. –We_give_up_our_rights.– At about this moment, you are saying to yourself BS, but if you really think about it, that’s the way THEY think about it, because we let them.

Why wouldn’t the government try to run over us since we have willingly given up our rights for so many little crusts of government bread? After all, who is against yet one more extension for the unemployed? We must be fair . . . but the fair line is on the left. Troublesome, huh? I refer you to Walt Kelly.

When I first found my way to RedState, now nearly a year ago, the first diary I read was by Art Chance. The man can write. His overarching message was about the use of power and how to use it aggressively, even ruthlessly. Take no prisoners. So said the aging eagle. Fascinating and written from an insider’s point of view as the Labor Relations Director for former Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski .

It is now crystal clear that the Republican incumbent senator from Alaska, Lisa Murkowski, plays down and dirty, in spades. When Murkowski found herself against challenger Joe Miller’s resume, the better angels of her nature, if she has any, went to the dark side. A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do, when she’s up against a conservative father of eight, graduate of Yale Law, a Westpointer and decorated war veteran.

After Miller slipped by the Murkowski machine in the primary, Lady Lisa was livid. It was time to triple down on the character assasination of Joe Miller. She is a scorpion and scorpions must sting.

There are scorpions with an entitlement mentality and there is Lisa, a woman given everything but the ability to smile. She’s not much on humble pie, either. It’s for the little people, doncha know. For Lisa it is power lunches and footsy with Leader McConnell. When Mitch isn’t looking, maybe a big wink for Big John. Lisa isn’t loose. She’s cunning and calculating.

Oh, how Lisa schemed and schemed. She wanted another shot in the general election and if that meant becoming a Libertarian, fine. When that didn’t work out, she declared she was still in the game and after a few days she chose to run as a write-in candidate. Well, we all know now that “Write-in” wound up with more votes than Miller on Nov 2nd. We don’t know for sure who has won. We will not know until the write- ins are validated and the absentee votes are all counted. Conventional wisdom is that Lisa Murkowski will prevail. Me, well, I’m praying justice will prevail. Lisa may be praying too, but she’s hedged her bets with the hiring of Ben Ginsberg. Yep, the famous Ginsberg who helped Bush protect his victory over Gore.

How did this come to be? How does Lisa Murkowski sit on the verge of a stunning write-in victory? She and all the porky teat-suckers went into the gutter and did their level best to destroy Joe Miller. Politics aint beanbag? The politics of personal destruction found a whole new meaning on the northern tundra. Look:

Oh yeah, that little Mudflats blog (click at your own risk). It’s written by a real lefty with a big hate for Sarah Palin and now she’s a big hater on Joe Miller. She snooped around and found that a Joe Miller in Alaska had received $14,000 in farm subsidies from Alaska. Joe emphatically denied it, and well, there are a number of Joe Millers in Alaska, but who needs to be sure? So out it went to the world where it was picked up by Huffington and then repeated as “fact” across Alaska, and beyond.

The diggers dug deeper and with a FOI found real proof that Joe had received $7,000 in farm subsidies on some small acreage he owned in Kansas. The horror! The man did what virtually every little crop producer in Kansas does. The fact that it was 7k over a seven year period starting two decades ago didn’t matter a whit. The Murkowski machine and its allies (those for anybody but Joe Miller) screamed they had the goods on the the small government, tea party candidate. They said Joe Miller is a fraud and a hypocrite and the good Lord knows in these days there is nothing worse than being called a hypocrite. It is just so very comforting to the serious sinners who enjoy their sins so much.

Evil Joe Miller. Evil. Really? If you repeat rumors, lies and unsourced stories over and over, they become true. Joe Goebels said so. Dammit, I hate Nazi tactics.

Man oh man, has there been some deep background opposition research, or what? Going back almost twenty years? It takes a lot of money, but money and Murkowski are pretty much the same thing. It also takes a certain type of politician to get down that low and dirty. No sweat! Lisa is made of stone cold. Nothing will be allowed to stand in the way of Daddy’s gift. When she was beaten fair and square in the primary, she called in all her favors and then the dirt rained down on Miller. She even said she was doing it for Alaska. Will that sell in the frozen north? Maybe.

Apparently any old dirt will sell in Alaska. Did you hear that Miller’s 8 children were once on a state sponsored health care subsidy? Did you know he was once disciplined for unauthorized use of state owned computers? Oh, and my personal favorite . . . did you know Miller is so paranoid he has security cameras installed in his personal residence? Plainly, Miller is off his rocker. He has to be. . . because it benefits the machine and the crowd that lives off the machine.

Hey, crazy Joe, you don’t really really believe that the Anchorage CBS affiliate was conspiring against you, do you? Come on, do you really think they wanted to find a child molestor among your supporters? What are you going to believe, KTVA management’s ridiculous excuses or your own ears? I mean it was a butt dial, right? Except it wasn’t . . . and now the two “reporters” involved are no longer with the station. Gone like greased lightning they are and the Alaska media aint exactly in hot pursuit of them or anything close to the truth.

As iff the above isn’t enough dirt to gag a maggot, consider the Tony Hopfinger affair. Alaska Dispatch editor Tony Hopfinger tried to force a confrontation at a Miller event and winds up in cuffs, detained for police. The press went wild, but if Miller security was out of line, where are the charges?

No matter, the national lamestream, and even a few so-called conservative pundits scorched Miller over this incident, but they have shown no interest in checking the history of Hopfinger or the Alaska Dispatch. Who publishes and owns the Alaska Dispatch? It’s married well billionaire Alice Rogoff Rubenstein, formerly of the Carter Administration, Washington Post and current trustee of the Carter Center in Atlanta. She stepped in to save the struggling online news site enabling Hopfinger to continue his fierce pursuit of Palin and now Miller. Thanks to Alice, Tony has a real desk from which to work make stuff up. Oh yeah, Alice from wonderland is a max contributor to Murkowski.

As we wait for the process to run its course, it seems Joe Miller gained 900 votes in the first day of counting absentees. And then comes this.

At this point, you may be asking yourself why any of this matters since whomever wins will caucus with Republicans? It matters a lot, for reasons that matter most: big things like liberty, Constitutional governance and fiscal responsibility, any of which are more important than just adding another Republican vote to the Senate.

Alaska should be ashamed. Lisa should be shunned. But don’t hold your breath. Alaska runs on pork and Alaska intends to continue to pick the pocket of the lower 48 states. Oink, oink! It’s the language of mutual agreement between the M & M’s, Murkowski and McConnell.

November 2nd was a truly historic night in Texas. Republicans sent 22 incumbent Democrats packing and this changed a narrow majority of 76 republicans to 74 Democrats last session to a 99 to 51 lead for the next session. Republicans are waiting on one recount to see if they will have a 100 vote super majority. Only two years ago Texas Republicans held their breath on a recount to see if they would be in a 75-75 tie.

There will be 31 new Republicans coming to the Texas capitol and only 6 freshman Democrats. The “WD-40s” have been wiped out. Only one white Democrat over age 40 survived the Tuesday night election. They owned the Texas legislature until about 1980 and have dwindled away to near extinction.

Legislators will find the same solid Governor waiting on them in Austin. Republican Rick Perry handily defeated Houston’s Bill White 55-42 to win a 3rd term. Perry beat White with a “new media” campaign strategy focusing on internet advertising and social network sites. He did not debate White. Perry refused to sit for interviews with the editorial boards of the major Texas newspapers. Perry didn’t even print yard signs. His campaign and a comparatively strong Texas economy carried Texas Republicans to victory in every statewide race and judicial seat.

The tea party spirit played a big roll in the Republican sweep. One prominent Austin based lobbyist put it this way:

Dont Mess With the Texas Tea Party!
The Texas Tea Party had an impact in Texas. Starting last summer with the Town Hall meetings and the rallies at the State Capitol, the group started attracting voters who had lost hope of finding a politician who represented their priorities. The Tea Party delivered them to the polls, and when they arrived there - they voted for the Republican candidate in almost every case. Now the question is whether any of the Republican candidates they elected will maintain any alliance with the Tea Party principals once in office.

The lopsided election results may put Speaker of the House, Joe Straus in danger of losing his position. He was a compromise candidate two years ago. Conservative Republicans will likely want to make a change to a more conservative Speaker.

All in all, it was a great night for Texas and Texas Republicans. As Rick Perry says, the states are a laboratory for good government. Texas is now even more strongly positioned to act as an example to the rest of the country.

And oh yeah, Texas is: