Please Sir, Can I Have Some More ..........

I’m really not a pessimist by nature although I readily confess it’s not been easy to grin and bear it during the last couple of years as the Obama regime waged war on this country. But now it seems there is light at the end of a very long and very dark tunnel. And for once, at least, it’s not a train coming in the other direction.

One of my favorite authors has always been Charles Dickens even though he wrote about some very dark times and some even darker topics. One of the few books which he wrote that didn’t comment on social issues in England was set in the bloody days of the French Revolution and the book’s opening words are well known.

“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times”.

The book, of course, was a “A Tale of Two Cities” and this is simply a sneaky way to talk about just that but not London and Paris but rather Los Angeles and Washington D.C.

The Obama regime and their co-conspirators in states and counties and cities around this land have tried their very best to fudge the numbers about the efficacy of their much vaunted stimulus package or should I say packages because, I don’t know about you, but I’ve lost track of just how many we’ve had. And, I’ve also lost track of just how many jobs were supposed to have been created by now,

I do remember Joe Biden back last Spring promising that 500,000 new jobs would be forthcoming each and every month during the “Summer of Recovery” promised by his boss. It seems to me that the only evidence that anything has been created is whoever it is that makes the signs trumpeting the “American Recovery Act” and I’d dearly like to know just how many of those have been planted along the highways and byways of America and how much they cost.

At long last, though, we’re starting to see some hard data but here again the waters are muddied by the confusion over “created” as opposed to “retained”.

The city of Los Angeles somehow was forced or shamed into conducting an audit of one of the stimulus packages and I could drag this thing out but I’ll cut to the chase and tell you that one such effort cost $111 Million and a Miss Grewell grudgingly claimed that it had produced the princely total of 55 jobs. In keeping with my Charles Dickens thing perhaps the good lady’s name should be spelled “Gruel”. But again, she could not or would not define whether these jobs had been created or retained but let’s give her the benefit of the doubt and say they were all created. Well that comes out to more than $2 Million per job.

I don’t know about you but give me half that number and I’ll never darken your door again. Now remember that the unemployment rate in Los Angeles is over 12% and this example is not isolated. Elsewhere in the LA area a “stimulus investment of $70 Million and produced just 14 jobs.

And could it be just coincidental that on the other side of the continent it was revealed that Washington DC had received no less than $3.7 Billion which, again coincidentally, is 3 times the national average but the city reports not one job “created or saved”?

So I’ll leave it up to you to decide if these times are the best or the worst.

Well, what do you think?

Ole!

It is 48 days to the midterms and, while a few months ago, I could see November from my house, now I can smell it. And the heady mixture is of fear and blood in the sand; a bit like a Hemingway bullfight except the fear is the sweat pouring from Democrats everywhere and their political life blood which will surely follow.

And here is a little look at why:

1) Remember the stimulus bill? Republicans strongly opposed it and said it wouldn't work. Democrats said it would revive the economy and keep unemployment under 8 percent. So, what happened? Democrats shoved through a bill that cost $1.1 trillion when you add in the interest. It cost more than the Marshall Plan, the Louisiana Purchase, and putting a man on the moon -- combined. The result? The economy didn't take off, the unemployment rate is still at 9.6%, and Democrats are calling for.......you guessed it, another stimulus bill.

More people have gone broke in a casino by doubling down than by any other tactic.

2) Perhaps the biggest problem with the economy right now is that businesses are so afraid of what the government will do that they're stockpiling cash instead of spending it. Having a pro-market, Republican Congress that will oppose tax hikes, red tape, and damaging new legislation will reduce uncertainty and help give businesses the confidence they need to start hiring and expanding again.

3) While he was campaigning, Obama promised to cut the deficit in half, but in his first 100 days alone, he quadrupled the deficit. As if that wasn't bad enough, his budget blueprint adds more debt than all previous presidents -- from George Washington to George W. Bush -- combined. No civilization in human history has spent like America has over the last two years of Democratic rule and unless we can get more Republicans in office, this country's economic future is going to be deader than King Tut and uglier than a 7 day old chunk of road kill.

4) The Democrats seem hell-bent on taking over as much of the private sector as possible. In a relatively short period of time, this regime has taken over much of the banking industry, auto industry, health care industry, and student loans. There are currently no viable plans to get out of any of these industries either. This sort of Sovietization of the American economy can only end badly. After all, look what similar policies did to the Soviet Union.

5) In the middle of a recession, the Democrats in Congress still seem to be on track to enact the largest tax increase in American history by allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire. Here we are with a struggling economy and businesses that are afraid to move because they can't be sure of what the Democrats will do, and Pelosi, Reid, and Obama still haven't addressed this massive tax hike. How incompetent. How short-sighted. How foolish.

6) “Now, people when I say that, look at me and say, 'What are you talking about, Joe? You're telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?' The answer is yes, that's what I'm telling you." -- Joe Biden.

My ex-wife would thoroughly endorse this curious economic strategy.

7) Our economy is no longer suffering from the recession. At this point, the economy is suffering from the policies the Democrats put in place that were supposed to create a "recovery."

8) I don't mind a President taking a vacation now and then or playing a little golf, but Obama has taken it to a ridiculous extreme. The man has already played more golf in less than 2 years than George W. Bush did in his entire presidency.

Is he planning to try out for the PGA after he gets out of office? And what's with the never ending vacationing? It's like the presidency is a distraction from taking time off for this guy. Wait, is that the phone ringing? Oh, it's Marie Antoinette. She is just calling to say that Obama needs to show more sensitivity to the people during tough economic times.

9) "I wouldn’t dignify you by peeing on your leg. It wouldn’t be worth wasting the urine." -- Democratic Congressman Pete Stark to a constituent at a Townhall meeting.

10) "But I don't want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don't mind cleaning up after them, but don't do a lot of talking." -- Barack Obama explains his views on bipartisanship.

11) "The Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home... What I think we know — separate and apart from this incident — is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that’s just a fact. — Obama explains that racism was behind the arrest of his friend, Louis Gates."

12) "Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards." -- Attorney General Eric Holder

13) Iran, a nation that's known for supporting terrorism and chanting "Death to America," is about to get nukes and Obama's reaction has been...well, pretty much nothing.

14) On the other hand Israel, a nation that's known for being a bastion of freedom in an oppressive region and for supporting America, is just trying to survive and Obama's reaction has been cold and hostile. Maybe if Benjamin Netanyahu started leading "Death to America" chants in the Knesset, Obama might become a little friendlier.

15) The President of the United States should not bow to foreign leaders.

16) Nancy Pelosi once promised to run the most "ethical and honest Congress in history." She wasn't alone. Yet, how have the Democrats been doing on that front? Perhaps we could ask Eric Massa, Charlie Rangel, Maxine Waters, Roland Burris, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Alan Mollohan, Laura Richardson, Pete Visclosky, and William Jefferson among others. Sorry that all the charges aren't laid out, but covering all the Democratic corruption that has occurred would be a double sized post in and of itself.

17) In one of the most corrupt deals in American history, Obama broke existing contracts and tossed away billions in taxpayer dollars to give his union pals an outsized ownership stake in Chrysler and General Motors. Now, every time you buy a car from one of these, you're essentially contributing to the Democratic Party. Calling that sleazy is like calling the ocean "wet".

18) "The American public...just like your teenage kids, aren’t acting in a way that they should act. The American public has to really understand in their core how important this issue is." -- Energy Secretary Steven Chu on the public's lack of concern over greenhouse gasses.

19) "How about just tracking down every single person who said drill baby drill and putting them all in prison. Why don’t we do that? Starting with Michael Steele." -- Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson

20) "There is no question there is a concerted effort to make this a political issue by some. And I join those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the (Ground Zero) mosque being funded. How is this being ginned up that here we are talking about Treasure Island, something we've been working on for decades, something of great interest to our community as we go forward to an election about the future of our country and two of the first three questions are about a zoning issue in New York City -- Nancy Pelosi

21) "When I became the NASA administrator -- or before I became the NASA administrator -- (Obama) charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science ... and math and engineering." -- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden explaining that Democrats no longer view space as one of NASA's top priorities.

22) The Democrats in the House actually managed to pass a cap and trade bill that's supported by Barack Obama. This bill would impose massive new energy costs on American consumers. Estimates range from $1600 to $4000 in new costs per family. Although the Senate hasn't passed this legislation yet, in an almost unbelievable show of arrogance, they're considering trying to push it through during the lame duck session. If they try that, the American people should rise up as one and proclaim that it will be a "cooked duck session" for anybody who tries to shove significant legislation through before the next Congress arrives.

23) How about Obama's big, oily Katrina? Know what the difference was between the oil spill in the Gulf and the other programs Obama has pushed? With most of the other programs, it'll take years for people to see how bad they are. With the oil spill, the country could see the complete and utter incompetence of the Obama regime in real time.

24) It's bad enough that the federal government ignored the law, isn't trying to finish the fence, and refuses to secure our southern border. But now, not only are they still talking up amnesty, they're actually harassing and suing Arizona because that state has decided to do the job that the federal government is refusing to do. If only the trial lawyers, unions, or ACORN were demanding that the border be secured, we might get some action.

25) You'd have to go all the way back to the days when the British were bossing around American colonists at the point of a bayonet to find the sort of government arrogance that led to Obamacare being shoved through in Congress. No matter how loudly the American people said they didn't want the bill, Democrats insisted that they knew best. So now, the quality of American health care will be destroyed, private health insurance will end, rationing will occur, death panels will be instituted, the deficit will soar, and taxpayer dollars will be used to fund abortion -- but on the upside, Democrats think over the long-term, it will be good for their political prospects. However, there is an alternative. The GOP House Leadership has pledged to defund and repeal Obamacare. If we can get them into power, we can start putting on the brakes and start working on healthcare reform that will actually improve that which we have now instead of destroying it utterly and replacing it with an inferior system.

As I said, 48 days and counting ……………………..

Let Slip the Dogs of War ..........

The last go around there was interminable blather about the so-called “Youth Vote” but now it’s beginning to look like maybe the “youth vote” is wising up. But why?

As of February, 2010, ABC News reported that the recent college graduate unemployment rate was running just under 19% - about 2x what the overall rate was at the time. According to the National Association of Colleges & Employers, average salaries of recent grads dropped about 1.3%. 37% of 18-29 year-olds have been unemployed during this recession. And more than 2/3 of college students are graduating with student loans. With all that going on, the last thing that students seem to be concerned about is voting.

Last week the New York Times published an interesting front-page piece: “Fewer Young Voters See Themselves as Democrats” (which was brought to my attention by none other than a 20-year old college student): The college vote is up for grabs this year — to an extent that would have seemed unlikely two years ago, when a generation of young people seemed to swoon over Obama.

Though many students are liberals on social issues, the economic reality of a weak job market has taken a toll on their loyalties: far fewer 18 to 29 year-olds now identify themselves as Democrats compared with 2008.

“Is the recession, which is hitting young people very hard, doing lasting or permanent damage to what looked like a good Democratic advantage with this age group?” asked Scott Keeter, the director of survey research at the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan group. “The jury is still out.”

How and whether millions of college students vote will help determine if Republicans win enough seats to retake the House or Senate, overturning the balance of power on Capitol Hill, and with it, Mr. Obama’s agenda. If students tune out and stay home it will also carry a profound message for American society about a generation that seemed so ready, so recently, to grab national politics by the lapels and shake.

That “whether” word is important for the Democrats. Just last week, Gallup published polling results showing that the enthusiasm levels of black and youth voters has tanked since the 2008 election. Thought given to the election by 18 to 29 year-olds is at the lowest level since 2002.

And even the Democrats are crying DOOM!

Philip Stricker, 21, a biology major who voted for Mr. Obama but says he has not been paying much attention to politics lately, uses a non-technical term to describe the phenomenon.

“There’s a vibe,” he said on a recent afternoon, while pumping weights at the gym. “Right now it seems like Republicans just care a lot more than Democrats.”

A spokeswoman for the university’s chapter of College Democrats, Mandi Asay, 22, said her group battled apathy on one hand and anger on the other. “People are angry — about the budget deficit, health care plan, angry about this and that,” she said. “I feel like Republicans definitely, definitely have a chance of getting back on their feet.”

They should be angry, with an unemployment rate that’s 2x that of the rest of the country. Although the youth vote still skews heavily Democrat (by a 12-point margin as of last April), that makes little difference if they are too indifferent to show up.

The Economist, not exactly a conservative bastion, notes this indifference and disillusionment: WHY, asks a Democrat leading a training session for fellow activists, doesn’t “Yes we can” work as a slogan any more? “Because we haven’t,” a jaded participant responds.

Progressives, as bedrock Democrats like to call themselves, are despondent. The election euphoria of 2008, when their party secured heavy majorities in both chambers of Congress and Obama won the presidency with ease, has deflated so rapidly that analysts are now diagnosing on the left an affliction they ascribed to the Republicans back then: an “enthusiasm gap”.

The present gap is really more of a chasm. Gallup, a pollster, reckons that a mere 28% of Democrats are “very enthusiastic” about voting, compared to 44% of Republicans. By the same token the Pew Research Centre found in June that only 37% of liberal Democrats were “more enthusiastic than usual” about going to the polls, compared with 59% of conservative Republicans. And according to an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll the same month, the categories of voters whose interest in elections has dimmed the most since the last one are liberals and those who voted for Obama (see chart). “You can’t deny the level of disappointment,” says Raul Grijalva, a Democratic representative from Arizona and head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

The overwhelming sentiments are the gloom and disillusionment of many recent college grads. The youth vote may still lean towards the Democrats, but the longer they are out of college and living in Mom’s basement, the deeper the disgust with Obama policies will become, and conservative Republicans will be successful in defeating Obama lapdogs.

Here I go with that dog thing again ……………….

Remember the Alamo, Pearl Harbor and everything else that has honed this Nation.

If you have a flag, tomorrow would be a good day to fly it.

Nine years ago this week, we began to chant: "We never will forget 9/11."

Not that 9 has some kind of kabalistic or astrological significance but it does come at a time when certain people want to rub salt into, as yet, unhealed wounds.

But nine years later, I think too many of us have forgotten, especially those in the White House.

Islamic extremists murdered almost 3,000 innocent Americans on 9/11. Who would have believed that within a decade of that tragic event, we'd have a president who believes, according to his own 2009 Cairo confession and creed, that it is part of his "responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear"?

Not to mention his mission to fight for the new mosque near ground zero!

Several months ago it was clear that Obama was using his special envoys to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, to "deepen and expand the partnerships that the United States has pursued with Muslims around the world since his speech in Cairo."

Then we learned that about Obama's real spiritual beliefs based upon a rare in-depth interview by a religious reporter for a major newspaper publication, including his beliefs about prayer, sin, heaven, the Bible and Jesus.

Add to that the explanation that Obama categorically has been prejudicial in his treatment against Christians and Christianity in comparison with Muslims and Islam.

For once, so far the Jews have been left out of this excoriation perhaps because we are few or perhaps because 80% of the tribe voted for him for reasons I don't pretend to understand. Even the Rabbi who officiated at the eve of Rosh Hashanah services I attended declared himself to be a conservative and he didn't mean theologically. Of course, this was Scottsdale so that may have had something to do with it.

There is no need to expand further on any of this but it is clear that the Obama administration has changed course in just this past year regarding passing anti-First Amendment defamation of religion resolutions, exclusively benefiting Islam and its proliferation while again abandoning the principles in the U.S. Constitution.

In October 2009, the White House rightly opposed the Organization of the Islamic Conference's (an intergovernmental body of 56 Muslim countries) push for the United Nations Human Rights Council to adopt a resolution that would broadly condemn the defamation of religion (or the defamation of Islam), because it would plunder Americans' First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

Hypocritically, however, as The Heritage Foundation reported, at the same time that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was publicly repudiating that U.N. Human Rights Council resolution, on Oct. 2, 2009, the Obama administration's "delegation to the 12th session of the council and OIC-member Egypt co-sponsored a resolution on freedom of opinion and expression that contains the essential elements of the resolutions on 'defamation of religions' that the U.S. opposed in the past."

And just a few months ago, on June 23, that anti-First Amendment stand was reiterated. Our envoy, one Mr. Hussain, clearly explained the new leg of Obama's Muslim mission at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars -- information, by the way, that no mainstream news agency I could find even reported. Hussain said, "The OIC and the Obama administration will work together in the U.N. on the issue of defamation of religion, especially in Europe." (Please read that again.)

Could it get any clearer? "Especially in Europe," but not excluding America or wherever else Americans reside in the world!

And why should we not believe that Obama will overstep the Constitution again by handing over the administration of defamation of religion laws to global and international powers, when he recently reported Arizona immigration laws to the U.N. as an example of a human rights violation?

The fact is Obama's Cairo pro-Muslim mission continues, and proof came again just last week. On the same day the president announced to the nation from the Oval Office that the combat mission in Iraq had ended, the Obama administration, unbeknownst to most of the country and the world, held a special workshop for 25-30 Muslim leaders from 20 national Islamic groups (under the leadership of the Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations) to provide the groups "funding, government assistance and resources."

At a time commemorating 9/11, when recent polls show that 70 percent of Americans are opposed to a ground zero mosque and 1 in 5 Americans believes President Obama is a Muslim, does he really expect that we will naively tolerate and approve of the Islamic bias in his presidential religious leadership and administration?

It's time to heed the wisdom of our fourth president, James Madison, who said, "In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself."

God Bless America!

It's a Dogs Life .....

The dog days of summer are winding down and so I present the serious and the not so serious.

Now don’t get me wrong, I find it hard, nay almost impossible, to write about Obama with my teeth unclenched. I should really try to find that device that was supposed to minimize my nocturnal teeth grinding. It’s in the bathroom somewhere. I think.

Obama went to Milwaukee, WI on Monday to speak to one of the few friendly audiences he has left in America — Big Labor.

Our Victim-in-Chief, with no sense of history, declared that people talk about him like a dog. First, it is worth pointing out he named his dog after himself — Bo. Either the dog stinks or got Mr. Obama’s initials.

And, our Victim-in-Chief should consider himself lucky considering the smears against many of his predecessors, including the most recent who was routinely compared by the left to Hitler

By the way, I think it is starting to dawn on the American public that the reason they don’t like him is not just that he’s a socialist. He’s a thin-skinned wimp. Americans like winners, not wimps.

The Victim’s speech is not worth remembering for anything other than its hypocrisy wrapped up in a sales pitch for socialism. Suddenly Obama is for tax cuts and Republicans are against them. Suddenly Obama is against spending. Suddenly Obama is against bailouts. Obama is for saying “yes” to everything and the Republicans are for saying “no” to everything.

The problem for Obama is that the American public believes him — he is for “yes” to everything, but that includes spending, bailouts, and ever greater socialism in our lives.

Consequently, while Mr. Obama may say “yes we can,” it is the voters, not Republicans, replying, “No. You can’t.”

But let’s get back to dogs.

First we had Obama declaring on TV that Black people were “mongrels”. Imagine the 2 Revs, Jackson and Sharpton, if I’d said that. And yes, I’m White according to the Census people.

Then, as I noted above, he referred to a Hendrix lyric and said that, “he was talked about just like a dog.

And that’s what started me thinking that if Obama were a dog, what breed would he be?

Well, here’s my list and I’m sure you could come up with a better list for yourself but here is mine in alphabetical order.

Airhead Terrier

Barbara Boxer

Chicago Bull Terrier

Cocky Spaniel

Labrador Deceiver

Mastiff Ego

Mastiff Tax Increases

Mixed Blood Hound

Open Border Collie

Teleprompter Terrier

Welsh Porgy


But before I choose I want to see the pedigree including the papers.

Less than 60 days ............

First the old news, then newer stuff and then some inevitable conclusions about both.

By now you know that we've been told day-after-day that 32% of Republicans, according to the Pew Research Center, believe that Obama is a Muslim. And more Republicans, 74%, than Democrats, 39 percent, oppose the construction of a mosque near Ground Zero. Thus, goes the argument, opposition to the proposed mosque stems from similar "right-wing" ignorance and Islamophobia.

Why do so many people think Obama is a Muslim? Are they lunatics?

Perhaps people base their assumption about Obama's religion on what they believe Islam says about the matter. In a New York Times op-ed, Edward Luttwak, with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote that Obama "chose to become a Christian." But, Luttwak wrote: "As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother's Christian background is irrelevant."

In exactly the same way that the child of a Jewish mother can renounce, claim otherwise, pretend or lie but he or she, according to the “Tribe”, is Jewish ‘til death do us part.

Maybe some follow the lead of Hillary Clinton. When asked on "60 Minutes" whether she believes Obama is a Muslim, then-presidential candidate Clinton said, "Of course not. ... There is no basis for that." She said she goes on "the basis of what he says." But she added, "There is nothing to base that on as far as I know". She wasn't called anti-Muslim.

Perhaps people believe Obama -- who no longer belongs to a church -- is a Muslim because of his 20-year association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Wright's church publication honored the anti-Semitic Nation of Islam's Louis Farrakhan as a man who "truly epitomized greatness."

Or maybe the more people oppose Obama's policies the less they think of him as a person. Discontent breeds negative feelings. After the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, a majority of Americans believed that Germany was behind it. A large plurality of Americans, despite the lack of evidence, believed President Nixon personally planned the Watergate break-in that brought down his presidency.

Liberals should be sympathetic. They are quite adept at willfully refusing to face facts, if necessary, to support wrongheaded views.

Here are some examples:

"The rich don't pay taxes." False. For the 2007 tax year (the latest income tax data year released by the IRS), the top 1% of income earners, those making over $410,000 a year, paid 40% of all federal income taxes. The top 5%, those making about $160,000 a year or more, paid 60 percent of all federal income taxes. Yet according to a 2008 IBD/TIPP poll, only 12%t of Americans knew what the rich, in fact, paid in taxes. And liberals are likelier to get it wrong.

"The rich exclusively benefited from the Bush tax cuts." MSNBC's insufferable lefty Ed Schultz said: "98% of you, it (the Bush tax cuts) doesn't even affect you." False. In a recent New York Times editorial, the liberal paper said extending the cuts to the non-rich -- a policy it favors -- would "cost" about $140 billion next year. Extending the cuts to the rich -- a policy it opposes -- would "cost" about $40 billion next year. If the tax cuts only benefit the rich, why would the Treasury "lose" more money from the non-rich than it would "lose" from the rich?

"The Bush tax cuts caused the deficit." CNN's liberal host Fareed Zakaria said, "The Bush tax cuts are the single largest part of the black hole that is the federal budget deficit." False. In 2002, tax revenues were $1.85 trillion. In 2007, revenues had grown to $2.57 trillion -- a 39 percent increase. Unfortunately, outlays increased almost as much. In 2002, outlays were $2.01 trillion. In 2007 -- the last year before the recession and before TARP, the various "stimulus" programs, bailouts and ObamaCare -- outlays were $2.73 trillion, a 36 percent increase.

"Bush had prior knowledge of 9/11." 35% of Democrats, according to a 2007 Rasmussen poll, believe President Bush had prior knowledge of 9/11, and 26% are "not sure." False. This was investigated years earlier and refuted by the 2004 bipartisan 9/11 Commission Report.

"George W. Bush 'stole' the 2000 election." False. In November 2001, The New York Times wrote: "A comprehensive review of the uncounted Florida ballots from last year's presidential election reveals that George W. Bush would have won even if the United States Supreme Court had allowed the statewide manual recount of the votes that the Florida Supreme Court had ordered to go forward. Contrary to what many partisans of former Vice President Al Gore have charged, the United States Supreme Court did not award an election to Mr. Bush that otherwise would have been won by Mr. Gore."

Mosque opponents can and do distinguish between a right to do something and the appropriateness of doing it. Polls show 60% of Americans oppose the mosque near the World Trade Center -- the same percentage that believe the Muslim group has the right to build it.

Or put it another way. Let’s say your 16-year old daughter just earned her driver’s license. She’s now legal to drive from New York to Malibu for Spring Break with a car full of her friends and she has the right to exercise that legality. Is it smart though and would you let her do it?

So, where are we?

For the 2 years before the election, Obama crisscrossed this country or, as he has put it, all 57 states and, while doing so, he begged for the job he now holds every inch of the way but still he blames President Bush for every failure of his (Obama’s) administration.

The State of Ohio has played a pivotal role in this country. Many, many presidents have hailed from there. Ohio is almost always on the winning side of a presidential election.

And so a poll in that state last weekend should have sounded a fire bell in the night because it revealed that in a head-to-head contest today, President George W. Bush would triumph over Obama by 10 full points. Yes, that George W. Bush. The Warmonger. The Frat Boy. The Clown. The Drunk. The Idiot!

Add that to the Zogby finding that the generic Republican would top the generic Democrat by 12 points and that the approval of Congress is a mere 11% and you begin to understand the strident Left. You will also understand why Democrats running for reelection want nothing to do with Obama including Harry Reid.

If 2 weeks is a long time in politics as we've been told, then 2 years is surely an eternity. Isn't it Harry?

The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank

There is so much political spin, and so many numbers games being played, when it comes to medical care, that we have to go back to square one and the simplest common sense, in order to get some rational idea of what government-run medical care means. In particular, we need to examine the claim that the government can "bring down the cost of medical care."

The most basic fact is that it is cheaper to remain sick than to get medical treatment. What is cheapest of all is to die instead of getting life-saving medications and treatment, which can be very expensive.

Despite these facts, most of us tend to take a somewhat more parochial view of the situation when it is we ourselves who are sick or who face a potentially fatal illness. But what if that decision is taken out of your hands under ObamaCare and is being made for you by a bureaucrat in Washington?

We won't know what that leads to until the time comes. As Nancy Pelosi said, we will find out what is in the bill after it has passed. But even now, after ObamaCare has been passed, not many people want to read its 2,400 pages. Even if you did, you would still not know what it would be like in practice, after more than 150 boards and commissions issue their specific regulations.

Fortunately-- in fact, very fortunately-- you don't have to slog through 2,400 pages of legalistic jargon or turn to a fortune teller to divine the future. A new book, "The Truth About ObamaCare" by Sally Pipes of the Pacific Research Institute lays out the facts in the plainest English.

While she can't tell you the future, she can tell you enough about government-run medical systems in other countries that it will not take a rocket scientist to figure out what is in store for us if ObamaCare doesn't get repealed before it takes full effect in 2014. It is not a pretty picture.

We hear a lot about how wonderful it is that the Canadians or the British or the Swedes get free medical treatment because the government runs the system. Well for a start it’s not free. In the UK, between the employer and the employee you’re looking at 34% of gross pay and that’s for so-called National Insurance. Income tax is on top of that. But, all that aside, we don't hear much about the quality of that medical care.

We don't hear about more than 4,000 expectant mothers who gave birth inside a hospital, but not in the maternity ward, in Britain in just one year. They had their babies in hallways, bathrooms and even elevators.

British newspapers have for years carried stories about the neglect of patients under the National Health Service, of which this is just one. When nurses don't get around to taking a pregnant woman to the maternity ward in time, the baby doesn't wait.

But the American media don't tell you about such things when they are gushing over the wonders of "universal health care" that will "bring down the cost of medical care."

Instead, the media spin is that various countries with government-run medical systems have life expectancies that are as long as ours, or longer. That is very clever as media spin, if you don't bother to stop and think about it.

Author Sally Pipes did bother to stop and think about it in her book, "The Truth About ObamaCare." She points out that medical care is just one of the factors in life expectancy.

She cites a study by Professors Ohsfeldt and Schneider at the University of Iowa, which shows that, if you leave out people who are victims of criminal acts or who die in automobile accidents, Americans live longer than people in any other Western country.

Doctors do not prevent homicides or car crashes. In the things that doctors can affect, such as the survival rates of cancer patients, the United States leads the world.

Americans get the latest pharmaceutical drugs, sometimes years before those drugs are available to people in Britain or in other countries where the government runs the medical system. And, in fact, those people may never get them at all, ever. Why? Because the latest drugs cost more and it is cheaper to let people die.

The media have often said that we have higher infant mortality rates than other countries with government medical care systems. But we count every baby that dies and other countries do not. If the media don't tell you that, so much the better for ObamaCare.

But is life and death something to play spin games about?