Obama's Major Failing: The Chicago Way

Ah even the Los Angeles Times is starting to turn on Obama by saying his problem is too much of the Chicago way.

Warning that Obama needs to take action quickly, Clemons adds that needed advice from a broader range of advisers "is getting twisted either in the rough-and-tumble of a a team of rivals operation that is not working, or is being distorted by the Chicago political gang's tactical advice that is seducing Obama towards a course that has not only violated deals he made with those who voted him into office but which is failing to hit any of the major strategic targets by which the administration will be historically measured."

Yup, he is getting the worst of all worlds. First he isn't getting any advice from people that might actually help him achieve goals and they are missing targets one after another. I found this part especially telling:

For instance, remember how much we heard all last year about the need for healthcare legislation before early August, before October, before Thanksgiving, before Christmas, before the State of the Union? And how spanked the White House was by the Massachusetts Senate upset that Obama said his laser-vision for 2010 was on jobs and the economy?

So, what did he announce during a Super Bowl interview? More healthcare meetings, designed to politically box Republicans into the No-Nothing corner.

Then they try to paper over all the graft and special closed door deals in the Health Care bills which is just par-for-the-course for Chicago. I think Obama needs to realize that the majority of Americans hate Chicago style politics and will rather throw the bums out in 2010 rather then continue to endure it.

If Obama actually wants to win a second term he needs to eject all of the Chicago people from the cabinet and start listening to other voices that will work with him to actually achieve goals. He also needs to be less arrogant and condescending if that is possible.

Baidu Hammers Earnings

I guess Baidu is well on the way to being the Google of China even though Google has admitted that they are going to stay in China.

Sales rose 39.8% to $184.7 million, 2.6% over views, as customers adopted Baidu's new "Phoenix Nest," advertising platform.

"This year ended on a positive note as Phoenix Nest's better-than-anticipated performance helped us to exceed expectations for the fourth quarter," said Baidu CEO Robin Li, in a statement released after the market closed.

For its first quarter Baidu said it expects sales of between $176 million and $181 million. Analysts expected $170.23 million.

I like that revenue estimate increase as well. What was really interesting was how various Chinese interviewed about Google said that they wouldn't miss it or barely use it. It would be interesting to see the market share break down going forward.

The Battle of Marja Begins

Hmm, this could be an actual turning point in the Afghan war much like Fallujah was in the Iraq war.

But U.S. and Afghan officials know that die-hard Taliban forces have been burying hundreds of improvised explosive devices around the town in recent weeks. "It's giving time and space to those who want to fight to dig in," says Ali Jalali, who served as Afghanistan's first post-Taliban Interior Minister and now works with the Pentagon's National Defense University in Washington. "It could be very bloody, and that could affect public opinion in Europe and the U.S."

I hope they have the escape routes hemmed in because city fighting is the worst kind of fighting. Luckily unlike Stalingrad or Huế the Taliban do not have armies in reserve to envelope any attacking Americans.

Iran Moves Closer to the Getting the Bomb

Still the world fools around and sits on its hands.

Iran pressed ahead Monday with plans that will increase its ability to make nuclear weapons as it formally informed the U.N. nuclear agency of its intention to enrich uranium to higher levels.

Alarmed world powers questioned the rationale behind the move and warned the country it could face more U.N. sanctions if it made good on its intentions.

I'm seeing a hot war between them and Israel before the end of the year if they keep pushing forward on this. Too bad the Green Revolution hasn't swept these madmen from power yet.

Card Check Might Get Shoved into "Jobs" Bill

I wonder if the Dems are going to see middle of the night voting and other rush tactics to get the jobs bill through without anyone reading it?

On labor law, Bill Samuel, the AFL-CIO’s legislative director, said the union would try to enlist moderate Republicans but acknowledged the difficulty of achieving a bipartisan bill. He said the federation might consider “other tactics,” meaning the card-check legislation or key parts of it could be placed into a larger jobs bill this year.

Yup, the AFL-CIO will put their industry killing bill right in with the "jobs bill" and dare the GOP to go against "finding jobs for out of work Americans." Thank God for the bloggers because they will have to be the ones to catch this fast one in any "jobs bill" going forward.

How Anti-Banker Rhetoric Hurts Small Business

This is the result of all that talk about "Fat cat bankers" that Obama always throws around.

The source told me that the reason the program has not been officially utilized was twofold.

One, almost every potential participant declined to cooperate because they didn't want the stigma of using TARP funds given the tremendous public anger towards Wall Street and resentment about the $700 billion bailout.

Yup, they didn't want to perticipate in a TARP program to help small businesses because they didn't want the stigma (and the strings) attached to the money. This is what happens when you talk about "bank taxes" and other crap when small businesses need loans. What is also bad is that Obama wants banks to "pay back every penny" through his asinine tax even though they have already paid pack all the money with interest.

Some of these small businesses are afraid that they will end up paying a "TARP money utilization tax." I mean some small businessmen who make over $250,000 might still be hit with a tax to pay for some other guys insurance. Mark my words, this uncertainty is going to strangle the recovery for years.

The Answer to Bipartisan Health Care Summit

It seems that the GOP can start to throw their weight around again. Gridlock is what makes Washington do its own thing while Americans can go about their business1.

Just as important, scrapping the House and Senate health care bills would help end the uncertainty they are creating for workers and businesses and thus strengthen our shared commitment to focusing on creating jobs. Assuming the President is sincere about moving forward on health care in a bipartisan way, does that mean he will agree to start over so that we can develop a bill that is truly worthy of the support and confidence of the American people? Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said today that the President is “absolutely not” resetting the legislative process for health care.

If they start over and craft an actual bipartisan bill that puts some GOP parts in like capping lawsuits while keeping in Dem things like a National Health Care exchange would be a good step forward. If it is more Obama "bipartisanship" that amounts to I'll listen to your ideas and then do my own thing then forget it.

First Conan vs. Leno now Racism in the Lunchroom: NBC Can't Buy a Clue

I would hate to be an NBC exec right about now.

So who at NBC thought it would be a good idea for the special today to be, among other things, fried chicken, “in honor of Black History Month”?

Because, spoiler alert – it wasn’t a good idea at all. And now NBCU employee Questlove is bringing it to the attention of his 1 million plus Twitter followers.

Questlove, the band leader and drummer for The Roots (the house band on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon) tweeted this picture from the NBC Commissary at 30 Rock, with the comment: “Hmm HR?”

I think the next thing NBC is going to do is make Brian Williams to do his newscast in blackface to "make things more ethnic." I guess the obligatory apology form letter has been sent to black leaders who won't raise an uproar since it was NBC and not Fox News.

What the Glaciers Aren't Melting? Time to Sell that Beachfront Land in Idaho

This is exactly why this whole Global Warming thing is such a joke.

But so what? His musings were wafted upwards through the New Scientist to the World Wildlife Fund to the IPCC to a global fait accompli: the glaciers are disappearing. Everyone knows that. You’re not a denier, are you? India’s environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, says there was not “an iota of scientific evidence” to support the 2035 claim. Yet that proved no obstacle to its progress through the alarmist establishment. Dr. Murari Lal, the “scientist” who included the 2035 glacier apocalypse in the IPCC report, told Britain’s Mail on Sunday that he knew it wasn’t based on “peer-reviewed science” but “we thought we should put it in”—for political reasons.

So some speculation by a glacier scientist (man that sounds like a boring job) went from an article in New Scientist to a WWF report to the IPCC report and was taken as an undeniable fact? No one checked anything on the way up the chain? I think they need to tear everything down and build the science anew like when drug research fails. Then they can get it right without trying to see who lied or who was speculating and when.

Obama about to Throw in the Towel on Health Care

Now everyone understands why it was such a hurry to get this done. There was a deadline by August, then it passed to the Holiday Recess, then it passed to the State of the Union. Now it just passed on it seems.

"And it may be that ... if Congress decides we're not going to do it, even after all the facts are laid out, all the options are clear, then the American people can make a judgment as to whether this Congress has done the right thing for them or not," the president said. "And that's how democracy works. There will be elections coming up, and they'll be able to make a determination and register their concerns."

I think taking his eye off of jobs and the economy and spending all your political capital foolishly on something that 70% of Americans don't care about may just put Obama into the bottom 1/3 of Presidents so far. I hope the President understands that if you really want something and will take the hit for not getting it don't outsource it to Pelosi and Reid.

An Apology Considered too "populist" by IPCC head

This has to be the lamest excuse for not admitting to egregious falsehoods in their 2007 climate report.

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said it would be hypocritical to apologise for the false claim that ­Himalayan glaciers could melt away by 2035, because he was not personally responsible for that part of the report. "You can't expect me to be personally responsible for every word in a 3,000 page report," he said.

The IPCC issued a statement that expressed regret for the mistake, but Pachauri said a personal apology would be a "populist" step.

"I don't do too many populist things, that's why I'm so unpopular with a certain section of society," he said.

Um, assclown Pachauri the "certain section of society" that you sneer at are going to bear the burden of all the new "carbon taxes" that go from the First World to pay for for the Hind Attack Helicopters of 3rd World dictators.

Also a "populist" step would be to apologize like a man when your agency screws up and includes lies in the most important report they have ever published. He needs to step down right now before he gets a no-confidence vote and has to join the populist scumbags again.

Obama Talks Crap About Vegas

You would think that Obama being from Hawaii would soften his anti-Vegas rhetoric but I guess he just can't help himself.

"You don't go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage," Obama said. "You don't blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you're trying to save for college. You prioritize. You make tough choices."

The comments quickly sparked a flurry of reaction from federal, state and local lawmakers in the Silver State, which had an unemployment rate of 13 percent in December.

I guess he wants the Vegas unemployed rate to reach the same heights as Detroit or something. I'm sure he knows that people "blowing money in Vegas" is what keeps that town in business.

It is true that Americans need to prioritize their money but who is Obama to tell them what to spend that money on? As long as their decision doesn't hurt the economy as a whole (like taking out a liar loan on a house they can't afford then walking away from the mortgage) then who cares if they shoot dice with their kids college money.

I love this Mayor of Vegas, Oscar Goodman's, skewer as well:

"He has to step up right away and say, you know, he wasn't thinking," Goodman said. "Sometimes when he's not using his monitors and reading what he says, he doesn't think. And this is one of those times he didn't think, and he should straighten out the record because he's been here, he knows Las Vegas is a great place."

Why are we Pissing off Our Banker (Red Chinese) By Selling Arms to Taiwan?

When I read this article I thought it was dated during the Bush years or something but it does say that it was Obama that approved these arms sales to Taiwan.

In the meeting with U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman, Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said the arms package for Taiwan "constitutes a gross intervention into China's internal affairs," according to a foreign-ministry statement. China is "extremely indignant," it said.

Beijing previously suspended military exchanges with the U.S. after George W. Bush authorized a separate weapons package for Taiwan in October 2008. But military ties were re-established last year and had been gradually mending before the Obama administration announced the latest arms sale Friday.

I thought Obama was supposed to be the great intentional healer but instead he pisses off the Red Chinese by selling arms to their so-called "break-away province?" I guess this is some Chicago style politics as revenge for China making Obama look like a doof at the Copenhagen Climate Klatch last year.

Burger King "Super-Fan" Demographics Change with Recession

It seems that going after "super-fans" ie 18 - 34 year old males might not be a good idea during a recession.

For five years, Burger King Holdings Inc. was on a roll, successfully courting its "super fans" -- 18- to 34-year-olds who account for half of all visits to Burger King restaurants.

Thanks to high unemployment and healthier eating habits, those super fans haven't been so super lately. Burger King has felt the impact more acutely than its main rival, McDonald's Corp., whose sales are growing.

Couple this with the fact that much of the "super-fan" demographic is now unemployed at a record rate and you have the recipe for an earnings decline. I guess eating Ramen that is $1.23 per serving might be a better deal then even a $5 value meal.

IPCC Climate Change Document Uses World Wildlife Fund Report as Evidence

Why is the head of the IPCC still in his job? This mess up is like having Goldman Sachs publishing the GDP data for the US.

A STARTLING report by the United Nations climate watchdog that global warming might wipe out 40% of the Amazon rainforest was based on an unsubstantiated claim by green campaigners who had little scientific expertise.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in its 2007 benchmark report that even a slight change in rainfall could see swathes of the rainforest rapidly replaced by savanna grassland.

Actually Goldman has economists on staff so maybe that is an unfair comparison. Maybe this latest Climate Change screw-up is more like having TMZ publishing the GDP report. If these guys have any credibility left it just got siphoned away. The idea of an environmental pressure group writing part of your Climate Change report is beyond the pale.

Russia Introduces New Stealth Fighter

It looks kind of like a Raptor with a Mig cockpit.

The sleek twin-engined jet closely resembling the Raptor flew for 47-minutes from an airfield at Sukhoi's production plant in the Far Eastern city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur on Friday. Development of the so-called fifth-generation fighter has been veiled in secrecy and no images of it had been released before the flight.

Here is a pic:

Media Double Standard: RNC out of Touch Going to Hawaii for Retreat but Obama going to Hawaii Okay

Sometimes the media just lets the mask slip with their double standards. This has to be the most egregious version of it that I remember. Hawaii is fine for Obama to vacation in while the Republicans are "out of touch."

Yet at a moment when millions are out of work and millions more struggling to get by, the party’s governing board will plot its comeback on the island of Oahu, sipping drinks poolside, catching rays on the beach that abuts the villa and raising questions about whether they’re as politically tone-deaf as they accuse the president of being.

This is the same Hawaii that Obama just got back from vacation last month. He was sipping drinks poolside at a million dollar villa, catching rays on the beach, and taking in rounds of golf. The media didn't jump all over him for going to an "island paradise" when so many are hurting. So in Politico's estimation Obama can come to Hawaii to relax in a million dollar mansion but the RNC has to meet at a Ramada in Sheboygan?

Oh, and has anyone mentioned to Politico that Hawaii is in a midst of an economic crisis and we have to cut teaching days and furlough state workers so we can balance our budget. We even had to take out a collection to keep our High School sports running. Our main industry, which is tourism, is on the ropes and is just barely starting to recover.

So every GOP functionary that brings money into our state and leaves it here is more than welcome. Hell, have the Democratic Committee meeting here at the same time since they will come here and spend money too.

Climate Change Unit Found Guilty of Breaching the Freedom of Information Act

But they can't be prosecuted because of a loophole in British law.

The Information Commissioner’s Office decided that UEA failed in its duties under the Act but said that it could not prosecute those involved because the complaint was made too late, The Times has learnt. The ICO is now seeking to change the law to allow prosecutions if a complaint is made more than six months after a breach.

Wow these climate change scientists might be in for some jail time (or most likely fines) for trying to cook the Climate Change books. This is why I winced when Obama mentioned "settled science" in his State of the Union. The science certainly isn't settled when you have crooks hiding information about it.

Obama Slams Supreme Court in State of the Union Speech

It sure is strange to see Obama disrespect the Supreme Court so openly in such an important speech. It is good that Alito silently stood up for the Court as well:

Obama had taken the unusual step of scolding the high court in his State of the Union address Wednesday. "With all due deference to the separation of powers," he began, the court last week "reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests -- including foreign corporations -- to spend without limit in our elections."

Alito made a dismissive face, shook his head repeatedly and appeared to mouth the words "not true" or possibly "simply not true."

I'm wondering if they will show up at all to the next State of the Union speech because technically they shouldn't be there. The Constitution doesn't mention them being there at all:

Section. 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient;

It says he needs to give this State of the Union speech to Congress and not to the Supreme Court. They actually shouldn't be there at all since you would figure that the drafters would have put "the entirety of the 3 branches" or something like that.

After this ham-handed disrespect the Supreme Court really should just stay home. The idea of a President slamming the Supreme Court, to their face, in a speech that he is constitutionally required to give each year is beyond the pale.

Here Comes the IPad

It sure looks pretty cool but $499 for a giant IPhone is not what I am willing to pay. However if it gets into the $299 range I will probably seriously look into it just so I can read books on it.

I hate reading books on the computer and this thing just looks like it would be easier on the eyes. I plan to go to the Apple store before too long so I can do some "market research" on the thing. I'm hoping that the touchscreen will be responsive and easy manipulate.

Wow Even the ObamaGirl wants Obama to Focus on Jobs

I think that it is official Obama it is time for you to find some people some jobs. You have just lost even the most generally in-the-tank of your supporters you have lost eveyone.

Now, the bikini-clad "Obama Girl" -- who famously cooed about her "crush" throughout the presidential campaign on YouTube videos -- admits the thrill is gone.

Amber Lee Ettinger -- the buxom sensation who lip-synched about her love for then-candidate Barack Obama -- said she wishes he spent his first year in office more fo cused on fixing the abysmal economy.

"I think he's doing an OK job," said Ettinger, whose original "Crush on Obama" video, first shown in 2007, has had more than 16.5 million views on YouTube.

"I know he's getting a lot of flak for things that he's not doing," she told The Post. "In my opinion, I feel like he should be focusing a lot more on jobs and the economy."

The so-called ObamaGirl:

SEIU Head calls Sen. Joe Lieberman and Sen. Ben Nelson Terrorists

This guy has lost his mind. I wonder why he didn't just call them Nazis and be done with it.

Even with all that, you’ll probably still manage to be shocked that Stern has criticized Sen. Joe Lieberman and Sen. Ben Nelson for halting disastrous health care legislation by saying, “There are a lot of terrorists in the Senate who think we are supposed to negotiate with them when they have their particular needs that they want met.”

Stern has flown the cuckoo nest. We wonder if the rest of the labor movement really wants to tie their wagon to this guy.

I wonder if Leiberman is upset by this crazy person lumping him in with guys that would stop at nothing in order to kill as many Jews that they could?

Now Specter is Down by 14 Points in Pennsylvania?

The defection to the Democrats is going to cost Arlen Specter his job. Mark my words.

That’s an 8-point swing for Toomey in just five months, showing that Pennsylvania voters have had enough of Specter and the Democrats. After all, Specter is the incumbent — and if he can’t get above 30%, he’s not going to be the incumbent for much longer. Thirty-five percent is a high number for undecided, too, even at this stage, which means that most aren’t sold on their current Senator.

The more I read this stuff the more I think there is going to be a GOP landslide in 2010. All GOP candidates have to do is push an agenda of small government, spending cuts, and giving working people their money back. Obama might actually save the Dems bacon by pushing a jobs program with a middle class tax cut that amounts to more than $33 a month.

CNN Poll Has ObamaCare down by 20 points

You would think that a CNN poll would be mostly liberals so this has to be some seriously scary news for Dems.

This is the obvious reason that Democrats “slam[med] the brakes” on health-care reform. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that their own internal polling on this issue took a dive over the last four weeks, starting with the slimy deals cut by Harry Reid in getting to cloture and continuing with the closed-door conferences at the White House, with the President and union lobbyists fighting with House and Senate Democrats to cut any kind of deal they could to let unions off the hook for the Senate’s Cadillac tax. The orgy of special-interest horse-trading has not only turned off the general populace on ObamaCare, but made Democrats into the kind of caricature they like to accuse Republicans of being.

Yup the sausage making part of the Bill had to turn off nearly everyone even if they wanted Health Care reform last year. That Union exemption from the Cadillac tax should have rubbed quite a few people the wrong way. The middle class may have looked at it as everyone is cutting a deal while they get stuck with the bill.

Now Evan Bayh at Risk in Indiana?

I guess the throw the bums out mantra will be repeated all over the Nation even toward moderate Democrats.

Pollster Scott Rasmussen has taken the first poll on the 2010 Senate race in Indiana—a race that until the last couple of weeks no one thought would be seriously contested. Rasmussen shows Democratic incumbent Evan Bayh trailing Republican Congressman Mike Pence 47%-44% and leading former Congressman John Hostettler 44%-41% and state Senator Martin Stutzman 45%-33%.

He is barely leading a Democratic State Senator. Bayh has been a Senator since 1999 and his dad had the seat since 1963. So the idea that a couple of nearly unknown people are within the margin of error of him is pretty shocking.

He seems to be running scared as well because he quickly jumped in against reconciliation on the Obamacare bill. He should be because reconciliation is the same thing as a resignation letter from the Democrats.

Obama Needed a Teleprompter to Talk to 6th Graders?

I'm sure that the children enjoyed the big black boxes and presidential podium as well. I wonder what was wrong with Obama just sitting in one of those tiny grade school chairs or just standing in front of the kids?

Here is an imagined excerpt from Obama's speech that day: *look left* Today children *look right* I am going to speak to you *look left* about "socialism." *look at 6th graders*



Here is what he really said:

Obama Plans Mealy-Mouthed Middle Class Relief

It seems that Obama is finally getting around to offering something to the middle class. Too bad it sounds like so very little.

Among the president's economic ideas:

• Nearly doubling the tax credit that families making under $85,000 can receive for child care costs, with some help for families earning up to $115,000, too.

This seems like a laudable credit if you have children under 12. If not then you can pretty much ignore this increase.

• Capping the size of periodic federal college loan repayments at 10 percent of borrowers' discretionary income to make payments more affordable.

I guess you can afford the payments but it will be over a longer period of time. $300 a month for 20 years and $600 a month for 10 years amounts to the same thing. Too bad this government cap will probably just extend the life of your loan. Also I wonder what happens if your discretionary income drops does your loan go out to even more years?

• Increasing by $1.6 billion the money pumped into a federal fund to help working parents pay for child care, covering an estimated 235,000 additional children.

This seems like a good enough goal. Hopefully the $6808 per child will not be a big waste of money.

• Requiring employers who don't offer 401(k) retirement plans to offer direct-deposit IRAs for their employees, with exemptions for the smallest firms.

Well, this is a good idea from an investors perspective because you have suddenly signed up everyone working for a small business for mutual funds. This should be great for the Vanguard, T.Rowe Price, Fidelity and any other mutual funds companies out there.

It would be bad for small businesses who can't afford to hire new workers due to the added cost of offering 401Ks. I do however see Fidelity or whomever jump into the small business 401K administrator role and offer low cost, hands-off plans. This is a lucrative new field that has just opened up a ton of new investment capital for mutual fund operators.

Also maybe the more entrants into the investment classes will curb some of Obama's propencity for shooting off his mouth about taxing fat cat bankers which tanks the market. The idea that he will be hurting millions of 401K owners will make him think twice.

• Spending more than $100 million to help people care for their elderly parents and get support for themselves as well.

$100 million sounds like almost nothing and probably amounts to like $1.50 per person or something minuscule like that. It smacks of the call to cut a few million from his cabinet that amounted to reducing the deficit by like .0003% or something like that.

Somehow I was expecting more sweeping plans for the middle class like tax relief or maybe a cut in payroll taxes or something. Instead this stuff sounds like some picking on the surface when what the middle class needs is jobs, jobs, and more jobs.

Uh oh, the White House Retreats into "It's the Message, Not the Policies"

I think Obama needs to understand it is not the delivery and framing of the message but the substance of the thing.

Well, with one caveat: "One thing I regret this year is that we were so busy just getting stuff done . . . that I think we lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people. . . . I think the assumption was, if I just focus on policy, if I just focus on the, you know, this provision, or that law, or are we making a good, rational decision here, that people will get it."

Um, it seems you have "spoken to the American people" and they just don't like what you are currently saying. He sure has spoken to them as well:

In his first year as president, Obama has broken all records for talking directly to the American people. According to CBS News, he has delivered 411 public "speeches, comments, and remarks" and 158 interviews - more than one public statement per day and roughly an interview every other day.

Just start saying different things that people agree with (and govern from the center) and independents will start to listen again. If you tell people "I purpose across the board tax cuts" and it is something more significant then $400 people will cheer. If you say "here is my job bill" and point out how much the payroll tax will be cut businesses can begin planning. It's not how you say it; it is what is said.

I Thought I would never see the day but I agree with Barney Frank: Abolish Freddie and Fannie

It is about time that this guy gets something right when it comes to financial matters.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said Friday he supports replacing the two companies entirely.

"I believe this committee will be recommending abolishing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in their current form and coming up with a whole new system of housing finance," Frank said at a hearing on executive compensation issues. "That's the approach, rather than the piecemeal one."

They are a giant hungry maw that eats nothing but tax payer money and will probably do it in perpetuity. They should never have been allowed to grow into a 5.5 trillion dollar colossus in the first place. But guys like Barney Frank kept the money train going and they became sort of a mini-Democratic retirement home.

Now at long last the Dr. Franken-Frank wants to kill off his own monster. Too bad they couldn't have done this a few trillion dollars ago. In any case course corrections need to be put into place and this thing needs to get unwound.

Obama Suddenly Finds His Populism

I guess it is about damn time.

He said a jobs bill emerging in Congress must include tax breaks for small business hiring and for people trying to make their homes more energy efficient — two proposals he wasn't able to get into a bill the House passed last month. And he used the word "fight" or some variation of it well over a dozen times. The House-passed $174 billion stimulus package faces a stern test in the Senate, in part because it is financed with deficit spending.

I like thing one but that energy efficient thing sounds like a waste of money that will probably not generate many extra jobs. He should think bigger by adding a one year payroll tax holiday or even a permanent cut in payroll taxes. True economic populism comes from from people being able to keep the money they work for instead of having some Washington bureaucrat waste it.

Could Sean Duffy be the Next Scott Brown? It Might be Time to Coakley, Obey?

He seems to think so from his David vs. Goliath run against 40 year Congressman David Obey.

Q: What does Senator-elect Brown mean for your race?

A: If Scott Brown can win in a state that President Obama won by 26 points, I can win in a district that Obey won by just 20 points against an unknown, underfunded challenger in the Democratic landslide of 2008. It means there is not a single Democrat in the country who is safe. And, as the author of the failed stimulus bill, David Obey will be at the forefront of the debate about jobs, the economy, and wasteful government spending. If he continues to tax and spend our country into bankruptcy, he’s going to get Coakley’d.

I like the idea of a so-called "Army of Davids" Coakleying incumbents. I'll provide a definition of:

"Coakley'd:"

1. To lose a campaign against an unknown after being 30 points ahead in the polls. eg: "Did you hear that David Obey just got Coakley'd by some guy that used to be on the Real World?"

2. To take a vacation during a campaign either literally or figuratively. eg: "We are so kicking that GOP candidates butt that we need to Coakley down to Barbados for a few weeks."

3. To claim that a Red Sox great is a Yankees fan. eg: "I hear Carlton Fisk is all Coakley'd about the Yankees winning the World Series."

4. To misspell the name of your state in your campaign literature. eg: "We need to reprint the mass mailing. We Coakley'd Hawaii to read Hewai'iid."

5. To piss off Catholics during a campaign ie: "What do you mean David Obey just Coakley'd that the Pope listens to Wagner Operas while wearing his old Hitler Youth outfit?"

6. To not react when one of your goons pushes a reporter. "Did you see what happened to Shepard Smith? He got kneed in the groin by an Obey homunculus and the Congressman just stood there and Coakley'd."

Dems Cut Back Health Care Plan

I guess the "alarm went off" that a sweeping change of a huge swath of the nations economy is not going to fly with the American people. Their pared down bill actually sounds palatable if they can find money to pay for it.

No decisions have been made, lawmakers said, but they laid out a new approach that could still include these provisions: limiting the ability of insurance companies to deny coverage to people with medical problems, allowing young adults to stay on their parents' policies, helping small businesses and low-income people pay premiums and changing Medicare to encourage payment for quality care instead of sheer volume of services.

"The helping businesses and low-income people" doesn't sound cheap but maybe taxing Cadillac plans could make up the difference. If you add tort reform to this mix and maybe allow people to stash away more tax-free money in their health savings account you might get some Republicans to come across the aisle.

The Recession Ended at 10 p.m. Eastern Time?

I have to agree with this blogger when he says that Brown winning in Massachusetts may have finally created certainty with businesses.

Businesses, investors and individuals require a level of confidence before they will make certain economic decisions. A corporation is merely a collection of humans and humans, when confronted a gigantic unknown--like how health care reform will affect them--lack the confidence to move forward.

The election of Mr. Brown is a signal that gridlock on major legislation affecting massive swaths of the economy will return within a year. Gridlock is good, because it removes the uncertainty of government action.

Now they don't need to have a reserve for possible health care losses or a cash hoard to pay for higher electric bills due to cap-and-trade. Now they can start to open up hiring and using their capital to grow again. Now a bipartisan jobs bill with a payroll tax holiday and corporate tax cut should be next on the agenda.

Brown Wins Massachusetts!!!

I am convinced that my $100 put him over the top.

In an epic upset in liberal Massachusetts, Republican Scott Brown rode a wave of voter anger to defeat Democrat Martha Coakley in a U.S. Senate election Tuesday that left President Barack Obama's health care overhaul in doubt and marred the end of his first year in office.

I am usually the vulture when it comes to this kind of thing but I was proven wrong this time. Actually in many ways I thought of it as an investment against Cap & Trade which I am convinced would have put us in a second recession. Now Cap & Trade is as dead as dirt.

In any case, I think Obama is the true vulture in all this. He waits until the last minute, swoops in and then immediately loses the election for the person he is supporting. He lost the Olympics, New Jersey, and now Massachusetts. He is the perpetual "vulture circling the dying candidate."

Seas of Liquid Diamond? Could be Possible on Neptune and Uranus

Now that sounds like a cool sight. I just got a "vision from the future" of massive diamond trawlers scooping up liquid diamond from the surface of Neptune. You can picture the thing firing off specialized diamond- filled rocket pods to a waiting De Beers orbiting collection station. The cost of harvesting and returning the diamond pods back to earth still makes them a very valuable commodity.

Oceans of liquid diamond, filled with solid diamond icebergs, could be floating on Neptune and Uranus, according to a recent article in the journal Nature Physics.

This also reminds me of Diamond Valley from Magic the Gathering:

Boston Talk-show Host Calls it a Brown Victory

I have to admit that this was the first election I have seen where there has a ton of ass-covering and finger pointing even before the voting was over.

You don’t start trashing the White House—a.k.a. the people who hand out jobs and control DNC money—if there is any chance you’re going to win. And the White House wouldn’t offer that “one reason” if they hadn’t seen the same internal polls the Coakley campaign has.

The Coakley insiders who are throwing down on the Obama administration are in full CYA mode, and they got there five hours before the polls closed. At 3pm today, they knew the election was lost.***

I mean the White House have already blamed some pollster for not warning them earlier. I mean Obama might have affixed his name to yet another loser. Win or lose though Brown going from 30 points down to a dead heat/slightly ahead should put national Democrats on notice. This "tea party" rejection of all their schemes might cost them control of the Senate if they aren't careful.

Hoyer Blames GOP "obstructionism" for Voter Angst

This has to be the most clueless, out-of-touch pronouncement I have read in a long time.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Tuesday said that angst voters have expressed early this election year is the result of GOP obstructionism, not the Democrats agenda.

Hoyer's remarks come as Republican state Sen. Scott Brown has surged in the Massachusetts special Senate election in part due to his pledge to be the GOP's 41st vote to filibuster healthcare reform legislation.

"I think what the public is angry about is they see, first of all, an opposition for opposition's sake," Hoyer told reporters.

What can the GOP do to "obstruct" a 60 vote super-majority? They can only suggest things and the Dems can pass whatever they want to. It is Democratic "obstructionism" on abortion that is stalling ObamaCare. Also all those back-room deals and bailouts to unions is what is getting people angry.

I think the 8% unemployment promise if the failed stimulus is passed by Obama when the current unemployment is 10% is extremely damaging as well. It shows that they don't know how to fix a problem even if they got a trillion dollars to do it with.

Roaming Gangs Start to Loot in Haiti: A Nostradamus Connection?

This has to be some scary news for all the aid groups pouring into the country.

Pockets of looting flared across the capital. Small bands of young men and teenagers with machetes roaming downtown streets helped themselves to whatever they could find in wrecked homes.

"They are scavenging everything. What can you do?" said Michel Legros, 53, as he waited for help to search for seven relatives buried in his collapsed house. A Russian search-and-rescue team said the general insecurity was forcing them to suspend their efforts after nightfall.

I'm afraid that once the wrecked homes are cleaned out they will go after the survivors. Once the survivors are picked clean they will then go after the aid workers. That is a bad situation that might get even worse depending on how wide spread these gangs are.

This statement from Ban-Ki-moon set off my fear meter:

"Obviously, that is only a drop in the bucket in the face of the massive need, but the agency will be scaling up to feed approximately 1 million people within 15 days and 2 million people within a month," he said. The U.N. would set up 15 food-distribution centers, he said.

The WFP already had food warehoused in Haiti before the quake, and would be flying in much more. Spokeswoman Emilia Casella noted the regular food stores in the city had been emptied by looters.

I really hope they actually have 15 days to start feeding a large number of the people because I don't think this situation will keep until then. Most people have lost everything and maybe haven't eaten in 50 hours. For some reason this Ban Ki-Moon comment got me to think about Nostradamus and this quatrain:

Quatrain 2.75
The voice of the insolent bird,
Above the respirator pipe from the floor:
So high will the wheat come to rise,
That man towards men shall become a Man-eater.

The insolent bird could mean that weird near earth object that passed on Wednesday. It is described as a "mystery object" in this article.

Asteroid 2010 AL30, discovered by the LINEAR survey of MIT's Lincoln Laboratories on Jan. 10, will make a close approach to the Earth's surface to within 76,000 miles on Wednesday January 13 at 12:46 pm Greenwich time (7:46 EST, 4:46 PST).

This is the weird object AL30.


The Haiti Earthquake happened fairly close to the time that this object passed the earth.

M7.0 - Haiti region - 2010 January 12 21:53:10 UTC
Nostradamus
The "respirator pipe from the floor" could be the earthquake itself if you think about it. I mean the earthquake did happen below the earths surface and the destruction was above the sea floor.

The "so high the wheat come to rise" could be a vision of the destruction of the white buildings and rubble of Port-Au-Prince that in Nostradamus' dark water could easily look like piles of threshed wheat.

The last part of the quatrain is what I hope does not come to pass from this prophesy. But 15 days is an awfully long time when so many people will soon be starving and looking for food. I am afraid that things could get far worse in the next few days.

Coakley Says: No Cathloics in the ER

This woman can't do anything right.

Ken Pittman: Right, if you are a Catholic, and believe what the Pope teaches that any form of birth control is a sin. ah you don’t want to do that.

Martha Coakley: No we have a separation of church and state Ken, lets be clear.

Ken Pittman: In the emergency room you still have your religious freedom.

Martha Coakley: (……uh, eh…um..) The law says that people are allowed to have that. You can have religious freedom but you probably shouldn’t work in the emergency room.

Wow, in other words Coakley just said that Papists need not apply. I though anti-Catholicism went out in the 30s but it seems that it is alive and well in Massachusetts.

Also how is the subject of contraception coming up in the emergency room anyway? Maybe on ER or Grey's Anatomy but not in the real world. I have never seen a campaign burst into flames like this a mere week before an election.

Union Sweet Heart Health Care Deal a Mistake

I have to agree with this article saying the deal that the White House had to cut with unions on the health care monstrosity will hurt them even more.

This may backfire. If you think that the Nebraska deal was unpopular, just wait until the administration announces higher taxes on everyone but its friends in the labor movement. We may see if the popularity of the health care bill still has room to fall.

Update: The more I think about this, the more I think it's a huge mistake. Support for unions is at a record low, and the GM deal has already made people think that the Democrats are doing sweetheart deals for Big Labor with our money. Republicans will have a field day.

I have to agree that many Americans view the GM deal as a strait union pay-off and as a result will probably only buy Fords from here on in. Any way you look at this deal is that the unions will just lean on the President whenever they don't like something and the offending legislation will be fixed.

Wow, Brown Now Ahead of Coakley by 15%?

It seems that negative campaigning, reporter smack-down, and spelling the name of the state wrong may be costing her. A 15% move in a few weeks should have the Dems running scared.

A new poll taken Thursday evening for Pajamas Media by CrossTarget – an Alexandria VA survey research firm – shows Scott Brown, a Republican, leading Martha Coakley, a Democrat, by 15.4% in Tuesday’s special election for the open Massachusetts US Senate seat. The poll of 946 likely voters was conducted by telephone using interactive voice technology (IVR) and has a margin of error of +/- 3.19%.

Union Deal Reached! Health Care can Proceed

I'm glad that unelected union heads get to give their nod of approval. Forget Putin or Ahmadinijoke the only people that can get the White House to quake with fear is the SEIU and and the AFL-CIO. The new Obama motto "Hope the Union Approves of our Change!"

In a major breakthrough, union leaders bowed Thursday to White House demands for a new tax on high-cost insurance plans as part of landmark health care legislation taking final shape in intensive negotiations. "We are on the doorstep" of success, President Barack Obama said.

The tentative agreement on the tax, which included significant concessions by the administration, was disclosed as leading lawmakers set an informal timetable of Friday for a compromise on the health care bill that Obama made a top priority in taking office a year ago.

Coakley Calls out the Big Guns

This was supposed to be an open and shut race but now Obama has to be called in to save the day.

"They believe that by defeating Martha, and replacing Ted Kennedy with her Republican opponent, they'll be in a position to tie up the Senate and prevent a vote on health insurance reform, financial reform and other issues so important to working families in Massachusetts and the nation," Obama said. "The outcome of these fights will probably rest on one vote in the Senate."

That shows how tenuous their advantage is. It sure sounds like a fear-based message as well. If you don't vote for Coakley then the "evil Republicans" will stop all of our failed and yet-to fail reforms. I can understand why Healthcare reform is such a rush job.

Davy Jones Prospect Yields Massive Potential

It seems that Davy Jones Locker might be full of oil according to this.

Shares of oil companies McMoran Exploration, Energy XXI and Plains Exploration & Production are jumping this morning amid news that the trio has made a nice oil discovery at its Davy Jones prospect in the Gulf of Mexico. Drilling logs on the 28,000-foot-deep well (that's 5 miles down!) show a likely prize of as much as 165 million barrels of oil and natural gas.

The well seems to be in a relativity shallow area in 20 feet of water. Which means you can get at it with jack-up rigs and don't need those expensive deep water rigs. Jack-up rigs have been in a kind of slump recently so this should be good news for companies like Rowan (RDC) that own them.

I looked at the financials for McMoRan (MMR) seem okay for the most part with a large nonrecurring entry due to derivative accounting. Their annual revenue is about $1 billion so this find could easily ramp up that number by several billion. The only problem is that they have all sorts of dilutive ways to get capital on their books so any slip up might be costly.

The next few weeks will be crucial according to this Forbes piece.

McMoRan is holding its quarterly conference call on January 19. I am sure the company would love to have more news for shareholders by then. It is more likely that it will take two to four more weeks to complete this work. What is really the key here is that the 150 feet of pay dirt already announced was found in sands not expected to bear hydrocarbons because in other wells they held nothing. It seems that the targeted sands which have resulted in very rich discoveries offshore in several very big wells drilled by others are just below the drill bit.

They already have 150 feet of oil but this number could go way higher depending on their findings. They might also drill a deeper well in their other finding called Blackbeard West. If that guy has oil in the same amount as Davy Jones this company might suddenly become a big player overnight.

John Kerry Asks Donots for money. Does he mean Donuts?

I'm not sure how much John Kerry thinks that donuts have so I think he is going after the tasty pastry looking for money. I would target cupcakes if I were him because they are the new "In" baked good right now.

Hello Donot,

Not a lot of time left, so here are the three quick reasons why I need you to dig deep and help Martha Coakley in these final crucial days in her slugfest down to the wire battle against the national Republican Party and the powerful special interest bankrolling his campaign:

Maybe he wants people to give donuts to the Coakley campaign. You would think that dollars would be better since you can buy TV ads with that. Perhaps Homer Simpson is running the show down there in "Massachusettes."

Coakley Goon roughs up Reporter at Fundraiser

Wow now this is a pretty high stakes campaign when they start to litterly push around reporters.

As I walked down the street, a man who appeared to be associated with the Coakley campaign pushed me into a freestanding metal railing. I ended up on the sidewalk. I was fine. He helped me up from the ground, but kept pushing up against me, blocking my path toward Coakley down the street.

He asked if I was with the media, and I told him I work for THE WEEKLY STANDARD. When I asked him who he worked for he replied, "I work for me." He demanded to see my credentials, and even though it was a public street, I showed them to him.

I thought it was SEIU goons up to their old tricks but it seems that this guy is some kind of image consultant to Democratic causes named Michael Meehan. Well he just gave an image that the Coakley campaign likes to rough up reporters that they don't agree with. Luckily the reporter just suffered some torn pants and not a head injury from being pushed into a metal railing.

December Deficit Hits Record

Well at least Obama is setting some kind of record. Too bad it is in the debt category and not some other place.

The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the deficit last month totaled $91.85 billion, the largest December deficit on record. The figure was in line with economists' expectations.

For the first three months of the current budget year, which began on Oct. 1, the deficit totaled $388.51 billion, 16.8 percent higher than the $332.49 billion imbalance recorded during the same period a year ago.

Last year's deficit surged to $1.42 trillion, more than three times the record of the previous year, an imbalance of $454.8 billion set in 2008.

President Thune?

Hmm I think the GOP might have a true contender to pit against Obama in 2012.

Tall, handsome, not yet 50 and with the sort of sunny demeanor that winning national Republicans usually possess, the former high school hoops star looks the part.

He’s also something of a national party favorite for slaying a political giant — then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle in 2004.

I think some midwestern charm and a platform of fiscal discipline that rails against bailouts and the failed stimulus could get him pretty far. However, this trait could take him all the way:

A former aide recalled that when the then-candidate greeted scores of fans by name at a 2002 South Dakota State football game, a national TV crew got angry, thinking the campaign had planted a group of supporters to come through the gate while Thune was working the crowd.

“I told them, ‘John is just amazing at remembering people’s names,’” said the former aide. “He proved it when he later remembered the entire four-person TV crew’s names two hours after he met them while walking in.”

I think this alone might win him the Iowa Caucus. Imagine giving a shout out to a few people in a crowd that he recently met at a diner in Ceder Rapids or at speaking engagement at the American Legion Hall in Des Moines. A handshake and an "I'm glad you can make it to this event, Joe" can easily swing a dozen votes his way.

Plus he was a star high school basketball player and could do a one-on-one event with Obama instead of a debate. I could see him crossing-over and then dunking on Obama in a pick-up game then helping him up.

The affable Midwesterner mold gave us both Lincoln and Reagan and they were pretty good Presidents to say the very least.

Massachusetts Senate Race Tied

Who would have thought that one of the bluest of blue states would have a tied race like this?

Can Republican Scott Brown really win? If you look at just those who say they are the most interested in voting on Jan. 19, the answer is yes. Among those in the recent Boston Globe poll who said they were "extremely interested" in the race, Coakley and Brown were tied at 47 percent.

I just gave a $100 to the Brown campaign on their online giving site. A 60 Democratic votes in the Senate is already going to doom us to ObamaCare and I am convinced that Cap-and-Tax is going to take us into a second recession. Even one vote will be enough to reign in these abuses. I read his platform and he more-or-less matches my stance on issues even Israel.

It also has to help him when his opponent cannot even spell the name of the state correctly in her campaign ad.

Paid for by Massachusettes Democratic Party and Authorized by Martha Coakley for Senate. Approved by Martha Coakley.

Close observers will notice that there is an extra 'E' tacked onto the end of 'Massachusetts. It's a trivial oversight, for sure, but you can bet that the jokes and jabs the typo will inspire will blunt at least some of the impact of the ad.

Maybe she is running to be the Senator form one of those fake stimulus districts.

It's Almost Official; Conan Out at NBC

It seems that Conan is going to leave NBC judging by his statements.

"Last Thursday, NBC executives told me they intended to move the Tonight Show to 12:05 to accommodate the Jay Leno Show at 11:35. For 60 years, the Tonight Show has aired immediately following the late local news. I sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn't the Tonight Show.

"Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the Late Night show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot. That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy."

I think NBC should just live with their mistake and let Conan go to Fox ASAP. I watched the Tonight Show last night and it was as anti-NBC as you could get. Imagine that sort of thing continuing until the Olympics. A three way race for the late night crown will be interesting to watch and I can't wait to see how it spools out.

Goalposts Moved on Stimulus "Jobs" Created

Well, it seems that all those errors and fake congressional districts are not enough to inflate the jobs "created or saved" to a high enough level.

Despite mounting a vigorous defense of its earlier count of more than 640,000 jobs credited to the stimulus, even after numerous errors were identified, the Obama administration now is making it easier to give the stimulus credit for hiring. It's no longer about counting a job as saved or created; now it's a matter of counting jobs funded by the stimulus.

That means that any stimulus money used to cover payroll will be included in the jobs credited to the program, including pay raises for existing employees and pay for people who never were in jeopardy of losing their positions.

In other words now every construction firm that even gets a dime of stimulus money no matter how well they were doing before just got "created or saved." That also goes for every weather-proofer or broadband installer as well.

They should just count all the unemployed as "saved jobs" since they will be getting stimulus money in the form of extended unemployment benefits. I think the White House needs to come to the conclusion that the stimulus was a dismal failure and start working on a "jobs bill" with the leftover stimulus money. Maybe that might actually lower the unemployment rate.

Unions Say Jump, White House says How High

I thought we are supposed to be bending the cost curve downwards but it seems that organized labor still controls everything like this was still Chicago.

Underscoring the stakes in the dispute, Obama met with about a dozen heads of the country's biggest unions Monday evening at the White House, after a day when labor leaders fired broadsides at the president over the insurance tax.

The president of the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka, warned that Democrats risk catastrophic election defeats similar to those in 1994 if they fail to come up with a health bill labor likes. Disillusioned union members might just not show up to vote, he said.

"A bad bill could have that kind of effect ... where people sit at home," as happened in 1994, when Democrats lost control of Congress, Trumka told reporters.

Wow a direct threat to the White House from organized labor. I wonder if SEIU goons will be "visiting" voters to make sure they "sit at home" if the union doesn't get what it wants? I mean the unions already got partial ownership of two of the three American car makers.

Too bad Obama couldn't just tell them "this is how it is going to be, if you don't like it who are you going to support? Republicans?" and laugh in their faces. Too bad the Dems are in the pocket of organized labor and are going to cave no matter what.

Harry Reid Bitterly Clings to Post Despite Racist Remarks

How this idiot still has the Majority Leader post is totally beyond me.

Reid apologized to Obama and a handful of black political leaders after a new book reported that he was favorably impressed by Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign and, in a private conversation, described the Illinois senator as a "light-skinned" African-American "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."

The way that the black Dems closed ranks on what is a pretty racist remark is even more telling. I guess it is racist only when a Republican says something like that. If it was Mitch McConnell saying something like that then every member of the Black Caucus would do everything they could to get him ousted. But all Reid has to do is apologize and that is that. It doesn't matter because Reid won't win in Nevada no matter what he does.

White House Seeking a "Bank Fee" in 2010 Budget

I think these people just don't understand what imposing a fee on a business means.

The Obama administration is considering imposing a fee on banks to help recover some of taxpayers' costs of bailing banks out from the financial crisis, according to multiple reports on Monday.

The White House said President Barack Obama wants to ensure that taxpayers are paid in full. "That's the president's goal," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters. He declined to provide details on how that might be done.

Um, we were paid in full with interest on the bailout funds. But this fee will just be passed right along to depositors and borrowers in the form of a government surcharge without impacting the banks bottom lines in the slightest. This is just like the "windfall profits tax" that they tried to stick to oil companies. You can tell these guys have never actually run a business that had to turn a profit.

The Government is Finally Letting Second Mortgages Die

It was a bad idea from the very beginning but it seems that the government is just going to let these things go into default and not try to bail them out anymore.

These arguments are getting less traction as time goes by. The destination media have lately begun taking an interest in HAMP's counterproductive results. The HAMP's underwhelming numbers, ineffectiveness, and costly efforts to limit redefaults (which have met with limited success) have been well documented. And the public, which never even wanted to bail out responsible homeowners, can't get excited about saving somebody's cigarette-boat-financing HELOC. If the Treasury Department is looking at that grim battlefield and putting up a white flag, that's the better part of valor.

This might be another shoe to drop for smaller lenders who might have to write off even more HELOCs. Perhaps the Fed is finally understanding that some people should just not be bailed out especially if they refinance for like $200 less a month and then lose their jobs and end up defaulting anyway. Maybe sometimes people just need to lose their houses and end up just renting instead.

Conan Might Move to Fox?

It seems that we might get a three man race when it comes to Late Night.

Comedian Conan O'Brien is mulling his options, including moving to a rival television network, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday in its online edition, citing people familiar with the matter. A person familiar with O'Brien's camp said other networks had approached the comedian since reports emerged that NBC may return Jay Leno to his old timeslot of 11:35 p.m., which would displace O'Brien. One potential suitor is News Corp.'s (NWS 16.34, -0.09, -0.52%) Fox network, which has held discussions with O'Brien's team about the possibility of hosting a late-night show, the newspaper said.

Now this would be interesting to see only of Conan can get a little edgier at Fox. If he is doing the same thing as he does on the Tonight Show (generally stink up the joint) then it might not work. Although Fox might just go "all in" to try to siphon late night advertisers away from CBS and NBC. I mean Conan O'Brien would be much more lucrative to affiliates then reruns of some syndicated crap any day.

The Reason Why Someone Needs to Be Fired as a Result of the Christmas Day Bombing Attempt

I think this statement sums up the outrage that many Americans feel about this whole mess.

Most grating in the White House report is the repeated notion that Abdulmutallab's plot failed. It didn't. Nine years after 9/11, and after billions of spent dollars in needless security, confiscated fingernail clippers, and dumped breast milk, he succeeded in smuggling explosives onto an airliner destined for American soil. He succeeded in igniting the explosive. If not for dumb luck involving bad chemistry and a brave Dutch film director, there might today be a smoldering crater in Detroit.

Yup, luck saved the day this one time. I'm pretty sure that we cannot have another try at this. The Bush people were right when they said: the terrorists have unlimited tries at this and we have to be right 100% of the time. It is just that simple. Luck should not be involved.

45% of Americans Would Rather Vote For a Random Name from the Phone Book

I mean a random person out of the phone book might actually say "how much is this thing going to cost" every now and again.

“More voters have greater confidence in the telephone book these days than in the current Congress, and most think their national legislators are paid too much to boot,” Rasmussen reported.

45% of voters would rather pick names randomly from the phone book to run Congress than to have Nancy Pelosi, et al, in charge, a Rasmussen Poll found.

Only 36% disagree.

Maybe it is time to switch to the Athenian System where everyone serves in the Congress by random pick just like Jury Duty.

Jay Leno Show to be Cancelled? Jay to Move Back to Tonight Show?

Wow, now these are just rumors but too bad for Conan O'Brien.

An industry Web site called FTV declared that Leno's show would be cancelled as soon as the Winter Olympics begin next month, when much of the regular programming on NBC will be pre-empted for Olympics coverage.

Then the TMZ Web site, citing undisclosed sources, said Leno's show would go on hiatus Feb.1. Following the Olympics (which take place in Vancouver from Feb. 12-28), Leno will take back the 11:30 p.m. EST time slot he occupied for 17 years that ended last May.

This would make Leno's successor at "The Tonight Show," Conan O'Brien, "the odd man out," TMZ said.

Hmm, maybe Conan could jump ship to ABC or Fox and make his show a little edgier like his show was before. I mean the Tonight Show might frown on Triumph the Insult Comic Dog but Fox would love it. I know Conan on the Tonight Show has been pretty lame for the most part so a move might do him good.