No Runny Eggs

Yes, it’s back for one morning only. Before I get to the meat of the matter, I must point you to some heartfelt words from Emperor Misha I to the remainder of the Kennedy family. For them, the late Senator was not Senator, but family.

Now that the 24-hour period of “mandatory niceness” is officially over (hell, it barely begun before Nancy Pelosi declared a unilateral end by demanding that ObamaCare the Chappaquiddick Memorial Death Panels Bill be passed in his name), we need music. Maestro…

Since I’m going to be lumped in by the “arbiters of ‘absolute moral authority’” with those who I quite franky agree even if I remain silent, I have got to salute those who remember Kennedy for the hyper-partisan, (wo)manslaughtering drunk, Communist sypathizer he was:

• We start with today’s Day by Day cartoon -
  
• Eric unloads the woodshed, the brickbats, and everything but the kitchen sink on Kennedy after somehow managing to observe the full 24 hours. Remember Robert Bork!
• The Angry Webmaster includes the kitchen sink.
• Tom McMahon multi-blocked the ten hours that cemented Kennedy’s reputatoin.
• Rick Moran notes that a sitting Senator leaving a young woman to die in the back of one’s submerged vehicle isn’t as big a news as it used to be. Of course, back then, it wasn’t exactly pursued either; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been in the Senate the last 30-some years.
• The Winning McCain Part 1 – Robert Stacy McCain broke out the “Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment” line one more time. Point of order – she is now able to unleash 40 years’ worth of comments on the guy who left her to die in the back of his sunken Olds.
• The Winning McCain Part 2 – he declared yesterday to be Mary Jo Kopechne Day, and, as the Godfather of Rule 5 blogging, included heaps of links to others who celebrated it as such.
• Paula provided the inspiration.
• Kate, who was inexplicably missed in McCain’s roundup, mourns the fact that Mary Jo’s dad didn’t outlast her daughter’s killer.
• Trail-Mix, who was also inexplicably missed, breaks out the Wikipedia entry. I would have recommended YTedK.com, but it seems the website went into the graveyard in the ether and only the Internet Archive has it.
• Emperor Misha I predicts Hell will run out of liquor inside a week.
• Confederate Yankee remembers Comrade Swimmer’s collusion with the Soviets to try to oust President Reagan.
• The DPUD Chad lists more of The Swimmer’s “accomplishments”, including repeated abandonments of countries to Communists, and influence-pushing to help one of his nephews in a rape case.
• Dr. Dave lists all of the “compassion” Kennedy had while living.
• James Wigderson remembers Kennedy’s life as “one of unlimited potential, much of it wasted.”
• Peter notes Dean Wormer was wrong – fat, drunk and stupid is a way to go through life.
• Fidothedog breaks out some classic Kennedy posters.
• Obi’s Sister just couldn’t work up any sympathy for Kennedy.
• Phineas notes that Kennedy’s treasonous relations with the Soviet Union was the blueprint for the Left’s actions during the Iraq War.
• Van Helsing breathes a sigh of relief.
• Basil opens up The Swimmer Joke line.
• Frank J. has a few random thoughts, including wishing Mary Jo Kopechne would have been alive to see that she was a trending topic on Twitter. She and the place she died were also top Google searches.
• Doctor Zero found a bill that is worthy of the Kennedy name – a term-limit bill.

The outro music comes courtesy Headless Blogger, who should enter his Dead Kennedy joke in Basil’s post.

Once again, there is a reason why I don’t do Scrambles anymore – this took longer than it took Pelosi to bust up the 24-hour rule.

I wonder if the ObamiNation Economic Team has this as their theme song…

• Paul Socha has some more pics from the Green Bay Tea Party. I wish I could have violated the time-space continuum to be there and at the Defending the American Dream-Wisconsin summit at the same time.
• Speaking of pictures, Tsiya made videos of a few of his wildlife collection photos. If that doesn’t make you think of spring (along with spring training baseball), I don’t know what will.
• Obi’s Sister wonders where her Conga line is after finding out that Freedom Watch wants to know how much in taxpayer dollars went to feed Obama’s party-animal side.
• James Lewis has today’s history lesson. It sure looks like we’re repeating the early 1930s.
• Brian uses the Useful Idiots of the Left to prove that assumptions cause asses to be outed.
• MataHarley wonders if the presstitutes will be covering the 2009 International Conference on Climate Change because its theme is “Global Warming: Was it ever really a crisis?”
• Gaius bestows cult status on the Gorebal “Warming” acolytes. I think that calls for another song…

  

• Stephen Kruiser asks, “WHERE THE HELL ARE MY DROWNING POLAR BEARS?!?” The last time I saw them, they were asking Jon Carry for halp…

  

• McQ explodes the myth that cap-and-trade -tax wouldn’t hurt the little guy. I hope you didn’t have that $13/week that you’re supposed to get later this year spent.
• Jim Hoft caught Rahm Emanuel admitting that the plan is to get rid of cheap energy.
• Curt points out that majority of ‘Rats wanted Bush to fail back in the day. Well, I want Obama to have an Epic FAIL when it comes to creating a big-S Socialist state and surrendering to whatever entity demands it, so I guess we’re even.
• Lex lists the tests that former Obama foe and current Vice President Joe Biden predicted would happen – North Korea preparing for another ballistic missile launch, Iran threatening to spread radioactivity across the Middle East, and the Red Chinese harassing the Navy.
• Kevin Binversie found no sympathetic ear for Bernie Madoff’s victims among the revenuers. He may be correct about about the unofficial motto of the IRS for now, but it soon will be “We will take it all, and you will be happy.”
• James Lileks proves what’s old is new again. Bonus item – today is National Panic Day, and the markets are responding accordingly.
• Liberals Gone Wild (thanks to Sister Toldjah for naming this segment), Part I – Michelle Malkin posts video of Charlie Rangel, the tax cheat in charge of writing all tax bills, swearing at Jason Mattera. With all due respect (only because Rangel is a Congresscritter), Chuck, you and your kind taxing the hell out of me while you and your kind live high on the hog IS my business, you dumbass.
• Liberals Gone Wild, Part II – JammieWearingFool caught the most-radical of the homosex/child-molester crowd putting a bounty on the head of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (D) for daring to keep the streets of New York safe from proven sex predators. I do believe that qualifies as demanding 110% fealty.
• Brent Baker found an ex-CNN en Espanol correspondent running for President of El Salvador as a Communist. Bonus item – the Communists are tying themselves to Obama, despite pro-forma objections from the State Department; I guess Hillary Clinton is still miffed that she’s 4 heartbeats away from her lifelong goal.
• Mary Lazich has a better idea for Porkulus that would actually be good for the environment – separate the sewers in Milwaukee and Shorewood.
• Eric has some sage words of wisdom from the late Charles Schultz.

I almost forgot how long these things take.

I figure today needs an epic…

What’s better than an epic multi-part Scramble?

• Ace is tired of playing the ObamiNation Blame Each Other game.
• Patrick Ruffini is as well.
• The Lady Logician issued a challenge to the troika atop the GOP – listen.
• Lex isn’t exactly optimistic about the near-future. He does a better job of putting those thoughts onto the keyboard than I can.
• Steve Burri proves that the only change in Leftist orthodoxy is a letter.
• Buyers’ Remorse Watch, Part I – Zip inducts Jeremiah Wright into the Wall of Shame for decrying President Obama as just another politician.
• Buyers’ Remorse Watch, Part II – Mary Katharine Ham inducts the Washington Post for their three-part lament. I believe her assessment of “(o)uch, ouch and ouch” sums it up quite nicely.
• Buyers’ Remorse Watch, Part III – Slublog inducts Christopher Buckley in for his late recognition that Obama is a Stalinist.
• Jim Hoft wants Obama to wear that label proudly rather than snarl at those that see Che Obama for who he is.
• John Ray explains why Obama is a Stalinist.
• Randy Fardal links the recent bouts of buyers’ remorse to Yul Brynner’s “don’t smoke like I did, dummy” message from the grave. I like the warning Randy came up with – “Experts have determined that supporting Obama may be hazardous to your financial health and individual freedom. (also may cause fetal injury)
• Expiration Dates, Part I – Jim Geraghty caught Obama planning to loan $1 trillion (that’s “T” for “terrible”) to hedge funds a week after saying that not one thin red dime would go to them.
• Expiration Dates, Part II – Jim also spotted optimism in the wheel wells of the ObamiNation Express.
• Expiration Dates, Part III – ColoradoPatriot gives two cheers for Obama’s change of heart on court-ordered disclosure of surveilance programs. The Kossacks are deeply saddened (or is it soddened?).
• John Hawkins updated some Obama posters. Yes, we are back in the late ’70s…

  

• Liz Mair explains why the Obama snubs of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (that’s right; the Gift Gaffe wasn’t the only, or even most-serious one) matter.
• Dan Riehl explores the onset of Sudden Tiredness Syndrome, which is the official excuse of the aforementioned snubs.
• Chris from Racine found a more-likely reason – narcissism. While I have your attention, she is taking over An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings from the semi-retiring Kate.
• B.C. has the Photoshop of the Day™…

  

• Flip is shocked, SHOCKED that Obama doesn’t read blogs. And here I was hoping that he’d be visitor number 100,000 </sarcasm>
• Jim Hoft found that while Obama doesn’t troll blogs, his minions are busy scrubbing Wikipedia of any criticism. Just file that as Exhibit #342,234 in the Obama = Stalinist case.
• Speaking of Dear Leaders, Doug Mataconis is somewhat relieved that the original Dear Leader “won re-election” with “100%” of the vote. I will force you over there to find out why.

Part two will be up shortly. I hope you left room for dessert.

Every time I think I can get out, the Scramble pulls me back in…

I’ve been busy meeting people well beyond my pay grade/getting the pulse of conservatism/drinking my way through DC the last couple days (sometimes more than one thing at once), so I owe you something. A Scramble through the best of the last couple days in the overbloated (and soon to be growing again) feed reader seemed appropriate.

• Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker explains the folly of borrow-and-tax-and-spend.

  I should explain a bit more about Milwaukee County. The finances had been a mess for years, but there was a tipping point. At the end of 2000, the county board (most of whom are, sadly, still there) passed a mind-blowing expansion of the pension system that gave unbelievable backdrops and pension increases to, mostly, themselves and the senior members of the kleptocracy. This massive unfunded and essentially-irrevocable liability sat unnoticed for a year until Bruce Murphy, then working for Milwaukee magazine, exploded it. That lead to a tea party based mostly in the southern part of Milwaukee County (that’s where I live), that ultimately saw then-county executive Tom Ament and 6 of the 25 supervisors either recalled outright or resign in the face of recalls.

  Walker became county executive in the wake of that, and has been proposing zero-tax-increase budgets since, even as the unionized employees and those that couldn’t be shamed into giving up the enhancements to the pension fund took their money and ran. While he hasn’t always been successful in getting those zero-tax-increase budgets past the board, the rate of tax increases in Milwaukee County has been radically reduced.

• Speaking of the Milwaukee County Board, Patrick Dorwin caught their spokesflack firing flack at the media watchdogs trying to get answers on a couple of board members who used county funds to attend the ObamiNation coronation. While one of them has paid the county back, the other hasn’t.
• Jib discovered the secret of beating back Jim “Craps” Doyle’s (WEAC/HoChunk-For Sale) Necro-Budget – focus on just a couple items. It sounds unsatisfying because that means most of the living dead will be shambling out of the Capitol, but like a military under seige, we can’t be strong everywhere.
• Kate swiped a Barack Urkel Photoshop. Yes, that is who 53% of the country elected President.
• Crunchie proves double standards are not twice as good as standards.
• Second dose of Patrick – he exposes yet another liberal candidate using state resources for campaign work, state superintendent candidate Tony Evers (WEAC-MEA). Odds that the only “Republican” allowed to take a statewide/Congressional seat from the ‘Rats in 2006, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, will even attempt to pursue this – zero. No, that is not a typo – while the incumbent Peg “Keg Goldschlager” Lautenschlager, who was cooperating in a joint state-federal probe (since shut down) of Doyle and got ousted in the primary for it (and a drunk driving conviction in a state car), Van Hollen was busy turning a blind eye to Doyle’s corruption as US Attorney for Western Wisconsin (which includes Madison).
• Owen finds the GPS priorities of Wisconsin all screwed up. We can’t track sex offenders, but we can track birds.
• Caledonia Unplugged exposes another “taxes for thee but not for me” Goron. That Goron probably would support the Uncle Fred vision for the KRM.
• Dad29 is shocked, SHOCKED that WEAC doesn’t think 12 years of education indoctrination is enough. What’s next, mandatory K-4?
• SteveF wonders how long it will be before nationalization crosses the Rio Grande from Venezuela, where it’s being enforced by the army.
• Moron Pundit found a local weatherman stupid enough to wear a green tie on a green screen testing out visual stealth.
• Demian Brady puts the budget into a timeline. If graphed, it would look like a logarithmic curve.
• JammieWearingFool proves once again that failure to pay taxes is a requirement for consideration as an aid to President Obama.
• Josh Schroeder asks whether the Dow going below 7,000 will just be a number or be a significant psychological barrier breached. Let me put my answer in musical form…

  

• Kevin Binversie proves the Wisconsin Covenant is an empty promise. Bonus item – if a private company tried that, it would find itself in court.
• Liz Mair calls out the big speners. Note to self; make sure to add her to the bloated roll when and if you get home.
• Brian proves that the Looney Left is far more dangerous, at least from a physical perspective, than the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.
• Just A Grunt outlines all the ways the Obama administration is trying to force a rapid return to $4/gallon gas, including talking about prohibiting some Candian oil. Of course, there isn’t any talk about banning very-heavy and very-expensive-to-refine (and if memory serves, very enviromentally-unfriendly) Venezuelan oil; after all, there’s fellow Communists-by-another-name to prop up.
• Little Miss Sunshine didn’t want to give Doyle any ideas for new “green” taxes, but the envirowhackos in Maine are.
• Mike is asking who said the following:
  

  e could almost wonder whether the Government do not reconcile themselves to the economic misfortunes of our country, to which their mismanagement has so notably contributed, because these misfortunes give the pretext of establishing even more controls and an even larger bureaucracy. They make mistakes which make things worse. As things get worse they claim more power to set them right. Thus they move ever nearer to the scheme of the All-powerful State, in which the individual is a helpless serf or pawn.

• Christian Schneider welcomes us to the Federal Department of Wisconsin. He who has the gold makes the rules, and the federal funding of Wisconsin’s budget will, if the Necro-Budget is adopted as-is, increase from 25% to 30%. That is despite $3.5 billion in new taxes.
• The Underground Conservative documents the latest battle in the war against American bathrooms – mandatory sit-downs for every male trip to the bathroom.
• Adam documents how the CTU All-Stars helped Big Bad Bill Buchanan’s aunt survive the DTV conversion.
• Jim Geraghty declares that a stopped clock is right; meanwhile, Obama admits the critics of the UN Racism Conference were right and won’t be sending a representative to the latest Death To Israel conference. There’s an expiration date I’m glad to see.
• Thus ends your positive Obama news of the day. Time to balance it out – Kevin Jackson outlines Obama’s war on achievement.
• In case you were like me and skipped the ObamiNation SOTU speech, Mary Eileen has a handy decoder guide.
• Tracy Coenen sticks a fork in General Motors. See the second song of the day for my reaction.
• Pam summarizes the federal Necro-Budget (©Kevin Binersie)
• Jon Ham found one benefit of corn-a-hole fuel – it violates Sharia law.
• Kyle Maichle launches a new award, and the first wein…er, winn…er, weiners (I was right the first time) are Mark Pocan and One Wisconsin Now for their drive for #1 in taxes for Wisconsin.

I hope that I can get out of DC today. I don’t feel like sleeping at the airport.

Sorry about being so late with Part 2…

• Dan Riehl find the formerly-Great Britain planning to ration air travel in the name of Gorebal “Warming”.
• Shoebox asks, “How green is your ethanol?” If it’s corn-a-hole, it’s not exactly green.
• Nick Schweitzer wonders just how sustainable is “sustainable” energy. It’s not exactly everything it’s cracked up to be.
• Rep. John Shadegg raises the alarm on a $6.7 trillion tax increase in the name of Gorebal “Warming”. That would be roughly half last year’s GDP.
• Jon Ham found an acolyte that wants to kill off over 2/3rds of the planet’s population. I wonder why the acolytes don’t have the strength of their convictions…oh wait, they want to be around to rule.
• Christian Schneider and Dan Bice offer a few rules for those bloggers who want to cover government. I think I’ve broken them all.
• Second dose of Christian – he outlines the latest attempt by the Government “Accountability” Board to ensure a silent election season followed by a re-ratification of ‘Rat control – the elimination of anonymous speech.
• Trail-Mix debuts his Contract with America II.
• Byron Audler lays out the case for using the O.H. Perrys in the role envisioned for the woefully-underequipped and -overpriced LCS.
• Uncle Jimbo lays some serious lumber into Barack Obama’s CinC side. I don’t think “present” will work when the binary solution is “victory or defeat”.
• Kevin Jackson explains as only he can why Obama is always late.
• GayPatriotWest points out that Ronald Reagan never blamed Jimmy Carter for leaving stagflation behind. Unlike the current occupant of the Oval Office; despite being handed an economic mess so bad that a brand new term had to be coined to describe it, Reagan simply went to work to break the malaise.
• Ed Morrissey wonders if Obama actually pays attention. When the essential characteristic of making a lie the “truth” is blind repetition,….
• Stephan Tawney wonders what the presstitutes would say if Sean Hannity had received a front-row seat to George W. Bush’s first press conference as President. We know what they did to a blogger who got into the press conferences, and it’s not exactly what they did for semi-successful liberal talk-show-host Ed Schultz.
• V the K is running a caption contest of Obama’s head/helo collision.
• Bill Quick calls Bravo Sierra on the latest CNN 76% approval rating for Obama. Bonus item – they crow about getting the undecideds down to 1%. Let me put it this way – if a pollster asks what color a quarter is, there will be at least 4% in the “undecided” category.
• Emperor Misha I decries the latest example of the death of the southern border – a rancher who had enough of his property being used as a border-jumping point is being sued for defending his property and country.
• Sean M. proves BDS is alive and well in the Senate. They’re NEVER going to let it go.
• Thomas Sowell outlines how to deprogram the young skulls full of mush after the screwels (™, Rush Limbaugh) get through with them. One slight problem; relying on simply asking whether one has been exposed to the other side isn’t going to work because critical thinking is not a natural trait.
• Lawhawk bemoans the creeping auto-gratuity sneaking into restaurants. It is a sign of the socialist times we’re all living in now.
• Adam hosts “24: Poker Night!” Watch Tony get drunk and Janis flub a field operation.

I need a drink. Unfortunately, it’s still over 2 hours until Drinking Right.

Yes, we’re back to the multi-parters – somewhere north of 350 feeds to choose from will do that…

• The Death of Newsweek, Part I – Ken found them cheering the fulfillment of Karl Marx’s prediction. As the song says, “Mamama, we’re all crazee now.”
• The Death of Newsweek, Part II – Jim Geraghty wonders why they’re cheering a 52% drop in single-copy circulation over 2 years.
• The Death of Newsweek, Part III – Tom Blumer answers that they’re just being honest about being liberal partisans.
• Lemur King compares and contrasts the presstitute coverage of the “talk-down” of 2000 to the “fear ‘n hope” of 2009.
• Dad29 on Gubmint Spending, Part I – he points out that federal government spending, without TARP, without the bailouts, and without the Generational Theft Act, increased by roughly 7.2% per year under President George W. Bush. Only in gubmint is a rate of growth double inflation considered “starving”.
• Dad29 on Gubmint Spending, Part II – he ran the numbers on Sen. Arlen “Scottish Law” Specter’s claim that it would cost “only” $195,000 per job saved and found that it’s 3.6 times the worth of the average job. Even if they were all UAW jobs, it would still be somewhere north of twice the worth of that job.
• How much are all those bailouts, Part I – Doug Mataconis found that the amount committed to the various bailouts would be almost enough to pay off every last home mortgage.
• How much are all those bailouts, Part II – John Walker found that liquidating all of the gold in the world at today’s prices wouldn’t even cover half the bill.
• How much are all those bailouts, Part III – Ace found that the bailouts are worth 2/3rds of everything the economy produced last year. Ahem – it’s closer to 3/4ths.
• Purple Avenger notes the beginning of health-care rationing in the Generational Theft Act. It’s no longer just the children they’re stealing from; it’s Grandma and Grandpa.
• Ed Morrissey can’t believe that The News Organization That Cannot Be Quoted™ isn’t buying the “no pork in this Generational Theft Act” line of Bravo Sierra.
• John Hawkins lists a few good reasons to kill the GTA (and no, I’m not talking about Grand Theft Auto).
• Is all this pork getting you hungry? Michelle Malkin found your dish – the Turbaconduckhen. I think it’s missing some pork sausage stuffing.
• Back to Michelle – she lists some of the things it’s not missing, like pork for golf carts, hybrids for federal employees, and Amtrak.
• Asian Badger hosts an economics mini-lecture. Today’s topic – hyperinflation.
• Dominic Rupprecht states that those who intentionally misrepresent history are doomed to repeat it. Can you say, “Lost Decade”?
• Bruce proves that the road to serfdom is paved with “good intentions” married to incompetent actions.

Part 2 will be up after I’m done with some tech support.

It’s been a while, so let’s rock on…

John Hawkins asked on Twitter this morning how he can “better find outstanding posts from small, lightly read, conservative/libertarian bloggers to link”. I can’t say I’m a very good source, but I do what I can.

• Gary Larson explains how we have Sen. Stuart Smalley.
• Dan Kenitz is shocked, SHOCKED that the race-card players would throw down against Michelle Obama.
• John McKittrick takes Barack Obama’s freshly-minted ban on weapons in space to its ultimate conclusion. That’s right; no more Space Shuttle, no more satellites, no more astronauts.
• Stephen Kruiser asks, “Were these people elected to run the United States federal government or the World Wildlife Federation?” It’s more like the World Wrestling Federation, complete with blind refs.
• Kathy Carpenter offers Exhibits 123,942-123-948 for the thesis that Obama represents the fifth FDR term.
• Patrick proves that the relationship between Old and New Media need not be 110% advesarial – between him, his co-bloggers and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Dan Bice (and a few mad taxpayers), a couple of Milwaukee County supervisors will be reimbursing the county for their Immaculation junket.
• Kate wants a ride on Citigroup’s new plane as it soon will be the taxpayers’ plane. Did anybody mention that Citi’s fleet is French?
• Trail-Mix asks the question that is on the few free-market types left , “When did Capitalism become the enemy?”, and then proceeds to answer it.
• Dave Casper outlines the utter stupidity of “sustainability” using his employer.
• Jib revises his economic outlook, and offers this bit of sage advice, (I)f you haven’t already, starting showing your superiors at work how important you are and how much more important you can be in a downsized company.”
• Shoebox blasts the facade from the Generational Theft Act of 2009.
• James Wigderson proves that Dr. Van Mobley, the Republican-establishment candidate for Wisconsin State Superintendent, has learned nothing from the experience of the Tommy Thompson 2/3rds-state-funding-of-schools-for-reduced-property-taxes failure.

As long as I’m in the promotion business, I humbly suggest reading the blogs that are linked on John Hawkins’ Conservative Grapevine. He may not have the music, but he has an even larger list of blogs he reads than I do, and unlike this place, he has readers who visit by the megabyte.

Somewhere, it’s 5 o’clock. As Bluto says, “My advice to you is to start drinking heavily.”…

• Follow-Up To Yesterday, Part I – Tom McMahon has a drinking game for designated drivers. I think we can still get 3 drinks out of that card.
• Follow-Up To Yesterday, Part II -Dan Riehl speculates that it was Al Qaeda trying to bring back the 12th Century that brought The Black Plague upon them.
• Bill Quick has today’s dose of Islamokazi-induced Doom and Gloom from north of the border that looks suspiciously familiar. First Europe, then Canada, and we’re next.
• Last direct Obamination Coronation mention – the Pheisty Joey has a very brave son, who is wearing a “HYPE” t-shirt to school today.
• Tim Graham plays an advanced version of “Name That Party”. Not only did the presstitutes fail to mention the perp was a ‘Rat, they tried to tarnish the other half of the bipartisan Party-In-Government.
• Brian reports that libraries across the country are about to be closed to children because of the past lead-based actions of the Red Chinese. The law of (un)intended consequences strikes again.
• Gravelle is disturbed that we won’t get the Wii Gun, while Europe and Australia will.
• Gabriel Malor finds that we’re winning the public opinion battle on Gorebal “Warming” to go along with the scientific victory. Again, I mourn the fact that we’ve already lost the political war.
• Silent E found Gorebal “Warming” High Priest Algore Goracle carved in effigy in Alaska. Alaskans are already tempting frozen fate by having just the effigy; they’re really asking for it by inviting Algore up there.
• Dad29 reports there will not be any more accountability to the second half of the TARP as there was for the first half. I’m shocked, SHOCKED!
• Patrick McIlheran is shocked, SHOCKED that the d-word is no longer mentionable.
• Kevin Jackson illustrates what is in our economic future – it starts with a “Z” and ends with “imbabwe”.
• SER illustratres the economic bailout with farm animals (mildly NSFW).
• Back to WMDs, Lex found the Persians were the first users of chemical weapons. Why do I get the sinking feeling they’ll also be the next users of WMDs?
• Zip reports that Iran is going back to the drawing board with Hamas. Something tells me we won’t have to wait very long for the next phase in the World vs. Israel war.
• Charles Johnson throws some cold scalding-hot water kim-chee on the noted sinking feeling; North Korea is now on a war footing. I guess Krazy Kim wants to beat the Mad Mullahs to the next mushroom cloud.

There’s more out there, but I need to be blotto by 11.

Time to put you in the Iron Maiden…

• NiceDeb proves again, and again, and again, and again, and again that Shoebox was right when he said there was no difference between 57 ‘Rats and 60 ‘Rats.
• Skip is shocked, SHOCKED that the ‘Rat half of the bipartisan Party-In-Government is seizing another opportunity to expand the pork. News flash – both halves of the bipartisan P-I-G will seize every opportunity (see the above item).
• Owen found the shine already coming off the HopenChange Express. No matter; the presstitutes will just continue to cover for the next 4-8 years.
• Charles Johnson presents them with the 2008 Idiotarian Award for just that behavior.
• Matt Spivey reports the teachers’ unions are also more than willing to participate in the propaganda.
• SteveT adds the Leftosphere to the propaganda – they’re throwing the race card out at those of us who won’t partake of the Obamination Inauguration.
• Tom McMahon has the only way to watch that. The staff of NRE is not responsible for alcohol poisoning if one chooses to use it for a drinking game instead of bingo (though I note alcohol poisoning is better than cyanide-laced Kool-Aid).
• Fausta found that it’s “cool” to fly the flag again. Of course, the flag in question is either the old Soviet Union hammer-and-sickle or this one…
• …Michelle Malkin is shocked, SHOCKED that the official flag of the Obama States of America (or is it Amerika) has been defaced (literally).
• Jim Hoft declares the War On Terror the most-successful ever, at least in terms of casualties.
• Dad29 lists some of those Islamokazis who have assumed room cave Hell temperature.
• DrewM. found a side benefit of going back to the 12th Century – The Plague returns, Islamokazis hardest hit.
• Thomas Lifson has Exhibit #513,213,592 of UN complicity in the war on Israel. Somehow, I doubt that Israel ending the offensive against Hamas a couple days before their shield in the UNSecurity Council evaporates will save them from having the UN compllicity become official UN policy.
• John McAdams runs the numbers on the soon-to-be-reality-living-nightmare KRM. Of course, since there’s an additional 9 days of sick leave vacation, it’s “only” a subsidy of $12,000 per year for those who live in Kenosha.
• Random10 proves Gorebal “Warming”, or at least mandates to combat it, have lethal consequences.
• Martinra measures how many “a”s it takes to scream.
• Adam cashes in on the collectible craze with Jack Bauer Commemorative Coins. I guess being out of work has caused Mike Novick to put on a few pounds.

If it’s Monday, and it’s between the Divisional Round and Memorial Day, it must be a “24″ Monday. Unfortunately, I won’t be part of the Blogs.4Bauer liveblog tonight (prior committments, dammit), but don’t let that stop you from being part of it.

Metallica was in town last night. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go because “24″ was on. In an unusual move, I’m offering two versions of “Master of Puppets”. If you need to avoid f-bombs, head on over to the Townhall version of this place for today’s song from the Alternica days; if you need the full-throated version from a time when Metallica kicked ass and kicked ass (and had plenty of kick-ass), here it is in all its glory…

It’s time for the Alan Shepard’s prayer since I’m getting a Campaign Spot spike – “Please, Lord, don’t let me screw up.”

• Kathy Carpenter compares and contrasts the attitudes toward the government bailout among the various current-governor GOP candidates for the 2012 nomination. There is a shocker there that Michelle Malkin picked up on; that’s all I’m going to say.
• Now They Tell Us, Part I – Jim Geraghty found CNN admitting that Barack Obama is looking like a different President than the candidate he posed as.
• Now They Tell Us, Part II – Amanda Carpenter is shocked, SHOCKED The News Organization That Cannot Be Quoted™ waited until just before Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-NY) Secretary of State confirmation hearing begins (or began, depending on how fast I can finish this up) to reveal her Chicago Way bona-fides.
• Speaking of the Chicago Way, doubleplusundead found a couple of potential Mobsters/future Senators (what’s the difference?) practicing the Chicago version of the Good Samaritan (or at least the robbers who preceded the Samaritan).
• Back to Obama – Jim Lynch “borrowed” an advance copy of his Inauguration speech. Trust me, it’s an instant classic.
• Steve Hayward outlines my fears that Obama will be the 5th FDR term.
• Shoebox wonders how the NAA(L)CP could be so economically blind. It’s either the pastels or the decided lack of red amongst the belles.
• GayPatriotWest identifies a severe case of Jeff Gannon Disease among the Obama press corps organs.
• Warner Todd Huston brings news that bloggers are now credentialed media in the eyes of the NYPD. I wonder whether it was the suit those bloggers brought against the NYPD or the possibility that the New York Times will fold this year that caused the change of heart.
• V the K found another brilliant example of spelling and grammar from the anti-Semite crowd. A missing “s” not quite as classic as the “Juice” episode, but it is very illustrative of the current state of education.
• Jim Hoft has Exhibit Number 1,432,243 in the decline and collapse of “Great” Britian – the police are being chased off by Islamists, who correctly call them “cowards”.
• Shoebox exposes the reason why the Not-So-Big Three is now pushing for higher gas taxes. I’m reminded of how GM got the catalytic converter mandated while they had a stranglehold on the market.
• The quote of the day comes from Doug Powers’s take on the call from Obama to delay the final step in the transition to digitial TV – “In this arena, the government has once again made the Three Stooges look like the U.S. Marine Corps Silent Drill Team.” Since I don’t want to disappoint the Marines, here’s the Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon…

  What, you were expecting the Stooges? Okay.

  

• The runner-up comes from doubleplusundead’s news of the latest RINO Senate cave – Orrin Hatch (“R”-UT) acceptance of Eric “Pardons For Sale” Holder as Attorney General – “Who needs enemies when you have friends like this?”
• If only they would take AWR Hawkins’ advice and ignore the 3 ‘Rat Rules of Politics.
• Lance Burri wants gridlock instead of bailouts. After the veto-proof approval of a $10 billion land grab that oh-so-”conveniently” restores a major portion of the drill ban and the item 2 spots above, I’m not hopeful.
• Flip proves that the natural extension of gridlock, Congress not being in town, is far better for the economy. 43 years of history cannot be completely wrong, especially when the difference is better than an order of magnitude.
• Kevin Jackson proves that being poor pays.
• Nick Schweitzer found the true lesson of a “Green” stunt pulled by a freshman Congresscritter – alternate fuels are not ready for prime time.
• JammieWearingFool found an early candidate for Worst Father of the Year. I guess all those involved were just doing business transactions that legal Americans refuse to do when the father sold his daughter off for marriage in exchange for a promise for money, beer and meat. Bonus chutzpah – Papi went to the police to get his daughter back when his son-in-law didn’t cough up all the dough.
• Your Health Minute, Part I – Christian Schneider links corn subisides, poor health, and calls for socializing health care like we did farming.
• Your Health Minute, Part II – Lance Burri links socialized health care and government-mandated diets. I guess my mantra of not wanting to live forever, much less living forever on somebody else’s dime is out of vogue.
• Adam found a show “ripped off” by “24″.

I’m a bit under the weather, which explains the lateness. How about some Jimmy Buffet to make up for that?

• John Hawkins presents the 7th Annual Right Wing News Conservative Blogger Awards.
• Moe Lane wonders what Sen. Bernie Sanders (Socialist-VT) will do to scratch his BDS itch when President Bush is gone.
• Tom McMahon 4-blocks skills and intentions.
• Jim Geraghty wonders who is left in the GOP who’s willing to fight. I believe the answer is, “Nobody.”
• Allahpundit found the expiration dates of Barack Obama’s words have expiration dates – it seems he won’t even wait until the 21st to order Club Gitmo closed even if the order will be slow-played.
• Ed Driscoll gives the presstitutes’ honeymoon with Obama 4-8 years. The only reason why it won’t be longer is because the “to 10 years” portion of Obama’s Presidency can’t happen.
• Matthew Continetti finds Newsweek has lached onto Red China as the last, “best” hope of Communism to take over the world.
• Kevin Fischer gets results – the 2-week “MJS Scorecard” is now all even at 4 pieces apiece. Money says they’ll slip back to their customary 3-1 liberal bias presently.
• Jon Ham found the next bailout participants – NPR and PBS. Never mind they already get $400 million a year in tax money; they want it more than doubled. I’ll spell out the proper answer – November Oscar.
• Jim Hoft found anti-Semitism very alive and well among the police in Duisburg, Germany. I’m surprised they, or the Islamokazis they were appeasing, didn’t leave a burning calling card.
• John points out the fallacy of “cease fires in the name of peace”.
• Back to bailouts for a second – Stephan Tawney is shocked, SHOCKED that Chrysler wants $3 billion more now (a 75% increase in what it got last month) and an unspecified amount for its finance arm.
• Nick Schweitzer proves the difference between a private enterprise and a public venture on his and his girlfriend’s way back from Cancun. Those two have lousy timing – they’re back just in time for some serious cold.
• Mark Tapscott has the latest bit of evidence that closed-door government is unhealthy for the taxpayers.
• Rob reports the big screen TV ban is about to hit Not-So-Great Britain. For those that don’t think it can’t happen here, I seem to recall an item the other week about California wanting to ban big-screens.
• Bill Quick offers the perfect solution for safety nannies.
• Jib dug up the origin of the penalty flag. I can only wonder what would have happened to Orlando Brown if the flags were still weighted with lead.

A couple of housekeeping items that I’m a part of:

- If it’s Monday, the gang at Blogs.4Bauer is live-blogging.
- The January edition of Drinking Right is tomorrow, same place as always (Papa’s Social Club, 7718 W Burleigh in Milwaukee), same time as always (7 pm).

As I type, the road teams have went 3-0 in the first 3 games of the NFL Divisional Playoff round…

• Speaking of drilling, Amanda Carpenter reveals the battle cry of Senate Majority Leader Dingy Harry Reid (D-OPEC) – “DRILL NOWHERE! DRILL NEVER!” Bonus item – the Dingy One is using pork to make it veto-proof, and is also extending the record of not allowing a single GOP-authored amendment.
• One item I forgot to throw in the first part – elliot found another sign of the coming depression – a nearly-empty remodeling show.
• Peter is shocked, SHOCKED that 2/3rds of the various transportation taxes, totaling $40.3 billion in 2005, go for something other than roads. Bonus item – a staggering 29.3% goes to “administration and overhead”.
• MuscleDaddy found the Islamokazis being inspired by Barack Hussein Obama.
• Glenn Reynolds found another statement from Obama reaching its expiration date – the quick closure of Club Gitmo. I wonder who will be more disappointed: the Islamokazis or the domestic Loony Left.
• Josh Schroeder has the quote of the week on Obama’s request to delay the final implementation of the years-long transition to digital TV because there’s another program that needs a bailout.
• The Oh-So-Tolerant Left Update, Part I – YoSAMite found an Obama website linked to a childish “Bush Shoe Toss” event.
• The Oh-So-Tolerant Left Update, Part II – James Wigderson discovered the Unhinged Left making death threats against the majority. I’m not surprised; they’ve been raging since (barely) before I was born.
• Marcus Aurelius points out an inconvenient fact for the Dingy One – there is NO Senate requirement that a state’s Secretary of State countersign a Certificate of Appointment (or Certificate of Election, for that matter). Of course, since the Illinois Secretary of State caved and did sign, that’s a moot point.
• Ed Lasky explains why we’re about to have Senator Smalley (Soros-Soros) – it’s all about the personal payback.
• Aakash put together the comprehensive Senate-Designate Roland Burris (D-IL) file.
• Stephen Green has the best Illinois governor Hot Rod Bagojevich (D) impeachment headline.
• John McAdams pictures the coming Illinois license plates.
• Michael Yon throws the red flag at those questioning British-American relations in the foxhole.
• SteveF explodes the idea of having somebody like the IAEA handle nuclear fuel production. Why, if the IAEA didn’t exist, North Korea would have nuclear weapons and Iran would about to have nuclear weapon…er, wait a minute, North Korea has nuclear weapons drawn from IAEA-”monitored” stocks and Iran is about to have nuclear weapons drawn from IAEA-”monitored” stocks.
• Paul Socha proves that the Wisconsin DNR is what Dad29 calls “Damn Near Russia”. They want to be able to grab your guns anytime, anywhere. FUCK THEM!
• Mrs. M-ITT, Imperial Sniper, will continue to have “sea kittens”. I only wish I could have found the “Walleye Song” on YouTube, but you’re going to have to go over to Indiana Walleye to download it.
• William Teach has the latest cause of Gorebal “Warming” – the Internet. I’ll continue to do my part to try to prevent subzero temperatures by continuing to put up rambling rant…er, high-quality posts, but they’re due in the land of ice cream and frozen beer by Wednesday anyway.
• Gregory Young busts the carbon component of Gorebal “Warming”. I’ve always maintained that blaming carbon was nothing more than a (post-)Communist plot to kill the Western economies; too bad this plot succeeded where the Soviets failed.
• Noel Sheppard asserts we are right back where we were in 1977 in terms of climate – The Next Ice Age is back.
• John blogs about eggs (that’s small-e). You know that was going to make a Scramble, especially the one from Big Bertha.

Let’s see if some snow can stop the last road team before Jack comes back.

Time to go deep into the archives for the weekend…

We’ve got the 7th season of Jack starting tonight at 7 pm (Central; consult your local listings for other time zones) on Fox (Channel 6/6.1 in Milwaukee, 506 on the Milwaukee-area Time Warner Cable HD box, consult your local listings for the channel in your area). I’ll be helping live-blog over at Blogs4Bauer.

• Stephen Kruiser calls Bravo Sierra on Barack Obama’s “FIRE!”
• Owen reports Wisconsin governor Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/HoChunk-For Sale, who is lucky that none of his pay-for-play schemes happened in northern Illinois) wants to overrule the wishes of the taxpayers who rejected Taj Mahal schools. I’m trying real hard to not let loose with a “Fuck him and the union that bought him” line (oops, too late).
• Dave in Texas finds dissention in the ‘Rat camp. I wonder if the Congressional ‘Rats are merely pissed that Obama’s attempt to create a majority with a negative tax liability is being sold as a “tax cut” instead of a raw, naked extension of welfare.
• Doug Powers is shocked, SHOCKED that the architect of the worst economy in the US, Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm, is part of Obama’s economic team. I’m not; after all, another, more-successful of his team members, Warren Buffet, advocates a 1% GDP growth.
• Patrick McIlheran proves that the resurrection of the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration, which is what Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway wants, will be even less successful the second time around.
• James T. Harris explains why it wasn’t successful the first time.
• Uncle Jimbo finds the looters at the gates. Er, they’re in power.
• Ace breaks out the dinosaur for the impending death of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. I mourn the fact that so much fisking material will soon be going to waste.
• HeatherRadish proves that if there is no safeguards against abuse of paid “sick days”, they will be abused. Bold prediction – a lot more businesses in Milwaukee will fold now that they have to give 9 additional days of sick leave vacation.
• Shoebox auctions off the number of jobs that Obama will “create” out of whole cloth and unicorn horns.
• Asian Badger sees nothing good about Red China reducing its appetite for US debt. Can you say, “Stagflation”? (and that’s if we’re lucky)
• Christian Schneider proves the only place the ‘Rats want to drill is into the economy.

The second heaping will be up shortly.

Danger, Will Robinson. It’s the first hump day of the year…

There is one good thing about an overbloated feed reader; I never run out of reading material. For that, I thank everybody I read.

• Amanda Carpenter wonders where the Charlie Rangel ethics report is. Shame on San Fran Nan for forgetting to get Amanda a wedding present (of course, I also forgot, so consider top billing in today’s Scramble a late one).
• Nate Beeler has the carTOON of the day. I knew I saw the Hot Rod Blago hairstyle before, and it was on top of a clown.
• Bill Richardson (D-NM) Taint Tentacles Part I – Wyatt Earp found that Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) got $40,000 from David Rubin, the man who cost Richardson his Commerce Secretary-Designate spot.
• Bill Richardson (D-NM) Taint Tentacles Part II – Rob reports that President-Elect Barack Obama (D) also got $3,300 in cash from Rubin.
• King Banian runs the numbers on what Obama wants to spend, and finds that the Obama planned $1 trillion deficits-as-far-as-the-eye-can-see is over 6% of total GDP.
• Michelle Malkin dubs it “The Generational Theft Act of 2009″. Subtle, and to the point.
• Shoebox proves again and again the Jim Geraghty Maxim – All statements by Barack Obama have an expiration date. All. Of. Them.
• Outgoing Flying Footballs, Part I – Charles Johnson is shocked, SHOCKED that Hamas would voilate the rules of war by putting ammunition dumps inside of UN-run schools, that the UN would look the other way while said schools are used as active fire bases by Hamas, and that the UN and the presstitutes would howl only after Israel exposes said sham explosively.
• Outgoing Flying Footballs, Part II – Charles found more fauxtography from the French.
• Outgoing Flying Footballs, Part III – Charles caught the Los Angeles Times becoming an official Hamas press organ, running a column by somebody so vile that the Clinton administration deported him.
• Michael Totten delivers a backhand to the pressitutes doubling as Hamas’ press organs.
• Stan is shocked, SHOCKED the Iranians shut down a paper for calling Hamas what it is.
• Jim Hoft found the Danish forgetful of history. Who was the last Middle-European tyrant that denied education to Jews? Anybody?
• Mark Tapscott declares the US, and specifically Minnesota, worse than the Roman Empire. After all, we’re about to have seated in the Senate the end of one of Caligula’s Senators opposite the traditional Mafia in-bed warning.
• Lance Burri is having way too much fun with the Roland Burris (D-IL) kerfuffle.
• Eddiebear is shocked, SHOCKED that “organic” food is a sham. After all, the creators of the modern envirowhacko movement, the Communists, would never deceive anybody </sarcasm>.
• Donna Martinez timed the turn of Phoenix’ brand-new light-rail system from “hero” to zero – one weekend.
• Jo Egelhoff identifies the one factor that could control health care costs. The only problem is, not only do most people not have any meaningful stake in costs, but everybody is conditioned to want to live forever on “somebody else’s” dime.
• I can’t leave without some good news – CDR Salamander reports the Navy is starting to teach that history has practical day-to-day applications.

It’s been a while since I had some voltage…

• Jason Pye has your random bank failure stat of the day – 99.65% of banks that started 2008 ended 2008 without FDIC intervention.
• Donna Martinez has your random homeschooling stat of the day – homeschooling is up 36% between 2003 and 2007. Bonus item – there is a now 7th reason in the 2007 Department of Education’s survey – “an interest in a ‘non-traditional approach’”.
• Flip warns us to not fall for the $300 billion Obama tax cut next step in the return to welfare.
• Dan Kenitz explains anew the need for a flat tax.
• Stephen Green discovered the secret behind creating a $2 million new media company. Hint; you need at least a higher order of magnitude in cash to start.
• John McAdams found the inspiration behind Bernard Madoff. Hint; everybody is running to it for a bailout.
• Francis Cianfrocca explains why Leon Panetta is the “perfect” fit for DCI. Hint; he has every qualification to run the CIA that Barack Obama has to run the country.
• JammieWearingFool reports that QVC is having a fire sale of bus-tested merchandise to a gullible ObamiNation.
• Tom McMahon delivers some good news; there have been but three times in history we have had back-to-back 2-term Presidents. The bad – the first and second times was back-to-back-to-back, and we’re coming off the third.
• Jib talked to Joe Everyman, with predictable results. While you’re there, do congratulate him and Mrs. Jib on their coming addition.
• Brian is shocked, SHOCKED that the top emitters of bovine excrement want to tax the second-in-line emitters all in the name of Gorebal “Warming” (and the imposition of a vegan lifestyle). They’ll pry my ribeye from my cold, broken steak knife.
• Richard Minitier hacks apart the introduction of “third-hand smoke” into the lexicon.
• J.R. Dunn offers yet another explanation on why the Nutroots are so successful – they drive the presstitute coverage.
• Tom H. Sleeter explains how election fraud will beget census fraud, which will beget even more election, political and economic fraud. At least that’s the plan if 2010 turns into another repeat of 2006 and 2008.
• Xbradtc explains the secondaries after Israel took out a Muslim mosque Hamas munitions bunker. It is nice to see the Israelis recognize the fact that one’s enemies are using “protected” structures (such as mosques) for “prohibited” activities (such as munitions storage) removes said “protected” structure from “protected” status.
• Blackfive found the Special Forces build a pretty good bridge.

I have to thank Mary Katharine Ham for today’s song…

Oh, heck with it; I may as well include the first HamNation mash-up of 2009 just because I can (and should)…

• Before I get to the meat of the Scramble, Jessi Olson would like you to remember a friend of hers who made the ultimate sacrifice a year ago today, PFC Jason Lemke.
• Rick Moran wonders whether the Mad Mullahs are in trouble. Personally, I think all they have to do is survive the next 15 days.
• Lowell E. McCoy explains the demands of the abortionists – a $4.6 billion bailout.
• Why do they need a bailout? Sharon reports that an overwhelming majority of Americans, at least according to Harris Interactive, don’t like abortion on demand.
• Paul Socha declares the Hyundai Assurance – Vehicle Return Program an Epic FAIL-In-Waiting. I’ll wager those cars will not come back in a usable condition.
• Dan Kenitz explains what happens when “free money” starts raining down.
• Uncle Jimbo found a sane denzien of the Huffington Post who used a bit of history to try to explain to his fellow inmates what’s going on in Israel and Gaza.
• Brian plays catch-up after departing the blogosphere just as things were getting very interesting. Please do welcome Liberty Pundit back to the land of the blogging.
• Crystal Clear Conservative is not happy over Barack Obama’s choice to run the DNC. There’s too many reasons to list here.
• One of those reasons is ethical lapses, which just nailed New Mexico Gov. and former Commerce Secretary-designate Bill Richardson (D). Dad29 points out that the “fresh” allegations are already almost a month old.
• David Kahane breaks out the clown cars for the ‘Rats. Again, just because I can, that calls for another song…

  

• Running with the above, Bill Quick reminds us that the party of the Rat was also the party of Tammany Hall.
• Ed Morrissey is shocked, SHOCKED that the next target is New York Senator and Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton (D).
• Michelle Malkin proves once again that playing nice with the ‘Rats just gives us rabies – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is planning on completing the neutering of the House Republican minority. I hope the GOP (or its successor) remembers that when the worm turns.
• Fausta caught Time trying to make the torching of cars by France’s suburban youth “a regular form of expression”, with New Year’s Eve becoming the Froggy equivalent of Detroit’s Devil’s Night. Left unmentioned is the fact that the “youth” tend to bow to the southeast 5 times daily.
• Jim Hoft found a disturbing trend in Arctic sea ice – we’re right back where we were in 1979. Unfortunately, we’re also there politically and economically (well, there is one difference; instead of The Next Ice Age, the acolytes are now bleating about Gorebal “Warming”).
• YoSAMite proves it isn’t easy being chees…er, green.
• Charles Johnson has the coming killer app for Sony Ericsson phones – an RSS feed for Al-Jazeera (pun purely intentional).
• Kevin Fischer launched the MJS Scorecard. He’s shocked, SHOCKED that the one “conservative” piece came from a left-of-center blogger who is running for a school board seat the ultra-liberal paint-catcher wants appointed.
• Eddiebear discovered something called the Beer Pong Championship. Hey Christian; there’s $50,000 in it.

Oh well, at least it was still morning when I started this.

News that the British pound has slipped below the euro (H/T – Oil Patch Plug) inspired me today…

• Crystal Clear Conservative is shocked, SHOCKED that the Federal Reserve is tripling its space. Well, when it is the primary instrument in the accelerated socialization of the economy, it’s no surprise that it will demand more space.
• Dean has one more (un)intended consequence of the coming transition to digital TV; a forced change in the wireless microphone frequencies.
• Glenn Reynolds wonders how a Texas legislator who never made more than $7,200 annually as part of the part-time Texas Legislator is walking out the dorr with a $92,704 annual pension. Can you say, “Party of Government?”
• Jon Henke explores the power of decentralized campaigns.
• Bill Smith has the bad news for the presstitutes; more people are getting their news from the web than from print, and even the all-powerful TV is slipping.
• P.J. Gladnick offers Exhibit #2,897,416 why print media is dying – they’re starting to admit they are Big-S Socialists.
• Darleen Click “applies” for a job as a graphic designer at your average teen “news” magazine. Actually, she didn’t apply, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see that on the cover of Time next week.
• Mid-Scramble Palete Cleanser (necessary after that last item) – Sharon Kass explains the mutual benefits of Conservatism and good mental health.
• Uncle Jimbo tells Barack Obama and Reuters to grow up.
• Lance Burri proves that The Race Card is not about actual diversity but about raw, naked power.
• RightwingSparkle wonders whether Hollywood will become pro-war because Obama wants to fight in Afghanistan. I wouldn’t hold my breath.
• MataHarley has some bad news on the Pakistani front.
• Jim Hoft found a brave, smart Palestinian girl who didn’t listen to the brainwashing. Hamas will almost certainly be sending her to join the rest of her family inside of 4 weeks for the “unforgivable crime” of blaming them for starting what Israel is desperately trying to finish before they lose the one friend they have on the UNSecurity Council (and yes, the lack of a space is intentional).
• Jib offers some money-saving ways to welcome in 2009. Of course, the #1 advice won’t work in Milwaukee (audio courtesy Patrick) – “Fire a gun in the air at midnight. At least in prison, you’ll get three squares a day.”

I’m a bit under the weather, so that’s why I’m late today. It’s been a while since I did an instrumental, so let’s start the week off with one…

• Lemur King wonders if things are truly as bad as the press says it is. He notes that if one takes out the excess of the later Clinton/early Bush years, the S&P Retail Index is right back in the 30-year wheelhouse.
• Mark Pribonic hacks apart the Transportation Stimulus Act. Question of the week from Mark – “If $3.1 trillion dollars of government spending cannot keep the economy from going into the tank, then why would anyone think that an additional $500 billion to $1 trillion would do any better?”
• Shoebox asks whether we can afford the payments on the Obama Stimulus Package. Stat of the day – if the 3 million jobs Obama wants to create do go 80/20 private/public, the increase in the government rolls would be 3 times that of the private rolls.
• Phil delivers a message from Patrick Henry to Barack Obama. The Hot Rod Blago odds that he’ll listen – 1,000,000-1 (and no, I wouldn’t bet on it).
• John McAdams found a cartoon on the Big Three UAW bailout that puts the crux of the problem in blazing orange.
• Thomas Lifson found Hot Rod Blago the butt of advertisements.
• Asian Badger offers a look into the bidding process that will become more widespread in the next Administration.
• Sean M. cheers the scientific death of Gorebal “Warming”. I would too if we hadn’t lost the political war while we won the scientific battle.
• Jib is disturbed that Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin came in third in a Sovie…er, Russian state television poll of historic Russ…er, Soviet historical figures. Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili wasn’t even a Russian.
• Steve S. found the Soviet Unio…er, Russia using natural gas as a weapon against Europe in an effort to neuter opposition to the restoration of the Soviet Empire.
• Eddiebear is shocked, SHOCKED that following the whims of envirowhackos invariably makes for a worse environmental disaster, as Seattle doesn’t reap because it didn’t sow.
• John Hawkins lists his favorite dozen quotes from 2008.
• Clay Waters delivers the ten worst lowlights from the New York Times Sedition Slimes campaign coverage. I have no idea how he kept it to ten.
• Ken laughs at the presstitute notion that we’ll miss them when they’re gone.
• Stephen Green gives exhibit #1,023,246 of Presstitute Bias – Time’s lead Israeli/Hamas presstitute wishing for the death of Israel.
• Eric explains why Israel needs to crush Gaza and Hamas now.
• Bonus reason – Nice Deb caught the legalization of crucifixion by Hamas.
• Glenn Reynolds reminds us that Obama once called for just the Israeli response to Hamas that’s being delivered now. If memory serves, that statement already passed its expiration date, the day after Obama made it.
• Charles Johnson points out the “innocent” Gazans not only voted Hamas into power, but attended en masse a multitude of anti-Israeli demonstrations “glorifying” the rockets Hamas has been firing into Israel.
• CDR Salamander reminds us of the savages we’re fighting in Afghanistan. I’m surprised the NYT and The News Organization That Cannot Be Quoted™ played this one straight.
• John surmises this is because we beat the Islamists with the press release.
• I do need to close this out with some holiday cheer – Bill Quick found a study that asserts that spiked eggnog is safe. Cheers!

I couldn’t do blues yesterday, so between that and the freezing rain-to-rain that’s come down, it’s Blues Day Friday…

Some of you were actually busy blogging yesterday, so why not reward you with a Scramble.

• Tom Blumer handicaps the race between Obama and the economy. Let me speak from experience; no matter what the economy does, CEBR and the presstitutes will declare the recession over at noon 1/20/2009, and not a minute earlier or later.
• Oil Patch Plug found the Red Chinese beginning to unhitch their yuan from the dollar to make it an international currency. As someone who knows just a bit about the international currency market, all I can say is, “Just! Damn!”
• Michelle Malkin discovered the next in line at the federal trough – the retail industry. Bonus item – GMAC, the finance arm of GM, is now a “bank holding company”, so whoever in my feed reader of bloat predicted that can now collect from his or her bookie while GM collects even more bailout money.
• Righty says, “Go long on prisons.”
• Jo Egelhoff found the ‘Rats and their allied groups outspent Pubbies and their allied groups 2-to-1. Yep; Campaign “Finance” Reform had its intended effects.
• The Underground Conservative wonders how the Wisconsin Legislature could set up a system where it can’t stop an automatic pay raise at a time when the state is facing a multi-billion dollar shortfall in the next budget (and a several-hundred-million dollar shortfall in the current one). Short answer – it’s controlled by the bipartisan Party-In-Government. More on that later.
• Rick Moran “thanks” the Minnesota DFL Secretary of State for conducting a master stroke in neutering the Minnesota Supreme Court and all-but-ensuring the theft of Seat #59 for the ‘Rats. I guess the only questions left are whether Shoebox was right when he said that there is essentially no difference between 59 and 60, and, if there is, which “Pubbie” will be peeled off by Barack Obama offering a plum administration job to deliver Seat #60.
• Thomas Lifson dumps even more coal in the stocking of the Gorebal “Warming” acolytes.
• Warner Todd Huston uses the New York Times to prove that Gorebal “Warming” is nothing more than a jealous religion.
• Lawhawk is shocked, SHOCKED that “green” energy doesn’t work as well in the cold.
• Jim Hoft is shocked, SHOCKED that the gatekeepers of the Connecticut Post are abusing their status to protect their boys Chris Dodd and Barney Frank. There is a reason why I call them presstitutes.
• Tim Graham proves that ObamiNation Worship is alive and well in the LeftStream Media.
• Nice Deb wonders why Michelle Obama, who the presstitutes have annointed as the new Jackie O, has had her law license listed as on “court ordered inactive status” since 1993.

I’m off to be the family tech support (again); I have a hard drive to install on the younger sister’s/her husband’s computer (after conducting another bug hunt first).

This one’s going to be a bit short, but it’s late on Christmas Eve already…

• Noel Sheppard found some Aussies that would hate the above video. That’s right, the Gorebal Warming acolytes are going after Christmas lights.
• William Teach discovered they’re also going after the Christmas feast. BAH HUMBUG!
• Stix found the official carol of the Religion of Gorebal “Warming”.
• Dad29 wonders why the EPA chose the time frame that included the demolition work associated with the Marquette Interchange to measure particle pollution in Milwaukee County. Simple; they wanted to put Milwaukee County in non-compliance. Bonus item from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story – because Milwaukee County is not in compliance, Racine and Waukesha Counties, which met the soon-to-be-implemented standards, is also in the “non-attainment zone” just because the EPA can declare that to be so.
• Flip carries a telling exchange between Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s office and PETA. Which exhibit is this in the “Don’t bother to attempt to appease the Left becuase they’ll just lie about you anyway” series?
• Fausta puts the serious hate on “It’s a Wonderful Lif…er, Bailout”. Life does imitate art, even if it’s 62 years late.
• Fidothedog found that government waste in the midst of a deep recession isn’t limited to the US. That’s right, the EU spent €2,000 (that’s just under $2,800 at the current exchange rates) per employee on Christmas travel.
• Randall Hoven has a plan to end this recession – “honest, responsible and predictable government budgeting.” Of course, putting the $57 trillion in unfunded Social Security/Medicare liabilities on the books is more likely to result in a revolution (which may not be such a bad idea).
• Patrick McIlheran has the story of yet another set of businesses being run out of business by Red China and an unthinking federal government; small-toy manufacturers.
• Gravelle hoists a cold one to a gang in Madison looking for some serious alcohol in their Reinheitsgebot-compliant beer. PROST!

Shoebox’s Christmas message is already up; mine will be up just after midnight, along with the start of the 2nd annual linkfest.