How to tell if you’re a back-bencher Member of Congress

The ultimate test of irrelevance for a Member of Congress is to attempt to break news and not make your local paper.  Such is the case of Representatives Bob Wexler of Florida, Luis Gutierrez of Illinois and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.  They penned an op-ed calling for the impeachment of Vice-President Dick Cheney and it ran in the Philadelphia Enquirer, where none of them are from.

It’s barely worth the read, seems more like a MoveOn.org press release, but if you have a few minutes to kill and don’t want to chew glass, jump off a building or find something equally productive, here it is.

The First Friday Video Collection

We only had time to make a few and hope to make a few more in the coming months, but we wanted to repost them here at the end of the year so you could check them out, in case you missed them the first time around.

Music and topics from the First Friday Podcast

You can listen to the show on the homepage, www.itsfirstfriday.com, or you can right click here, choose Save As and download the show so you can fast forward, rewind and what have you.  However you do, do it!  It’s a good time. 

Clinton final pitch ad
Get your way – Jamie Cullum

Podcast theme
Fearless – The Bravery

Time Magazine’s 2006 Person of the Year is the special guest at First Friday, meaning we didn’t go get a political player for this month.
Iowa Caucus discussion and predictions for the Democrats; the continuing saga of Hillary, Barack and Johnny
I Predict a Riot – Kaiser Chiefs
Abracadabra – Steve Miller Band
Wild Thing – X
It’s now or never – Elvis Presley

The Also-Rans Political Ad
Crazy – Gnarlz Barkley

Bud Light – Real Men of Genius
Mr. Giant Inflatable Pink Gorilla Maker

Bumper Music
Fortunate Son – Creedence Clearwater Revival

Predictions for and discussion of the Republicans in Iowa
Run Like Hell – Pink Floyd
It’s Tricky – Run DMC

Our take on Stories of the Year
The election, Democrat controlled Congress, the war, Britney, Paris, Lindsey, et. al.
Big Time – Peter Gabriel
Loser – Beck

Bill Clinton’s final, final plea for Hillary
Let’s Get it on – Marvin Gaye

Bud Light – Real Men of Genius
Mr. Pro Sport Heckler Guy

Bumper Music
911 is a Joke – Public Enemy

News of the Weird, News of the World, News of…Whatever!
Germans are drinking less beer!
Tragedy – Bee Gees

New drug may do away with the need for sleep in monkeys, politicians who never sleep and flinging poo, naturally
I’m so Tired – The Beatles

A random discussion of the career of Patrick Swayze, Roadhouse, Dirty Dancing and his finest hour, Red Dawn
She’s like the Wind – Patrick Swayze

A kid in China wins lottery, quits school (duh!) and what we’d do had we won the lottery at 19 and Commies in China ban drinking booze at lunch of party members (not much of a party then)
Money – Pink Floyd

Woman finds dead mouse in her crackers, not the kind you eat
Dead – The Pixies

Prisoner bitch about prison conditions (idea, don’t commit the crime)
Folsom Prison Blues – Johnny Cash

Fights and guns at soccer games
Kung Fu Fighting – Carl Douglas

Reuter’s Top Ten Quotes of the Year
Dumb – Nirvana
Stupid Girl – Garbage

Wrap-up and thank yous for the last show of the year
The End – The Doors

Like mother, like daughter – neither Clinton will talk to reporters, even when the reporter is 9 years old.

I few days ago there was a story about how Hillary wasn’t taking any more questions from anyone, reporters or supporters out of fear of saying something that could be used against her, now comes this story of how Chelsea Clinton wouldn’t answer a simple question from a 9 year old “reporter” for Scholastic News.

When asked the hard-hitting question, “Do you think your dad would be a good ‘first man’ in the White House?” Chelsea wouldn’t even throw the kid a bone and say yes or no.  Instead, her answer was “”I’m sorry, I don’t talk to the press and that applies to you, unfortunately. Even though I think you’re cute.”

Chelsea, who stands mute on the stage, serving only as window dressing and a reminder that Hillary is a parent, is serving as a political prop for her mother and nothing more. 

It was just back in September when Bill Clinton tried to force a New York restaurant to take down a picture of Chelsea saying she is a private citizen, but it seems when Hillary needs a prop to make her seem human, Chelsea is fair game.  Just don’t ask her anything.

Does that mean there’s a chance Chelsea doesn’t support her mother’s politics?  The press has been very indifferent to this story, unlike the differences between Rudy Giuliani and his children, who are much younger, so concern for a young person’s privacy can’t be the issue.  After all, Chelsea is 27 and actively campaigning with her mother, all be it in a Calvin Coolidge sort of way. 

Or does this mean Chelsea isn’t the genius we’ve been led to believe?  Surely that can’t be the case since she’s got a high-paying job and was a Rhodes Scholar and there’s no way her parent’s position helped get her either of those things…

Douchebag of the Year – You pick the winner

We’ve been giving out the Douchebag of the Week Award since we started this thing, but with the end of the year upon us it is time to pick the biggest douchebag of the year.  We’ve nominated them, you vote.  Either leave a comment telling everyone who and why or just email your selection to us at contact@itsfirstfriday.com

We’ll tabulate the votes and send the winner a nice certificate they can display in their home or office.  (We will really send it to them, though we doubt they will display it.)

The nominees for Douchebag of the Year are…

John Edwards 

Hillary Clinton

Michael Moore

Barry Bonds

Bud Selig and all the owners in baseball

Code Pink

MoveOn.org/George Soros

Al Gore

Harry Reid

Nancy Pelosi

Remember, as we said in the podcast, the Douchebag of the Year need not have won Douchebag of the Week to win for the year.  Someone could’ve been consistently douchey all year without being the biggest douchebag in any given week.

The winner will be announced after the first of the year.  Vote early and often!

D.A. Arthur Branch makes his closing argument

Thanks to the Thompson Campaign for pointing this out to us.  If other campaigns have similar videos we’ll gladly post them.

Smells like a coup; will it work?

 The assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is a tragedy by any measure, but it is not a surprise.  In fact, this was the second attempt on her life since she returned Pakistan in October.  While the eye of suspicion falls on Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf, thinking rationally, that seems to lack logic.While what follows is purely speculation, it makes sense.

No one stood to gain less by the death of Bhutto than Musharraf.  Bhutto was a popular figure who opposed much of what Musharraf was doing.  By ordering her death, Musharraf would have known the violence that has ensued would’ve happened.  Since Musharraf has only a tenuous hold on power as it is, something like this would loosen his grip significantly.  But would would gain?

Knowing Bhutto’s death would spur riots and calls for Musharraf’s head, Al Qaeda stands to gain a lot, depending upon where those riots end up taking the country.  Al Qaeda is a desperate organization, the Muslim world has not rallied to their cause en mass the way they’d hoped.  Their leadership is reduced to living in caves and on the run on the Afghan-Pakistan border.  The odds of and benefits to them of seizing power in Pakistan far outweigh the prospect regaining power in Afghanistan because Pakistan has nuclear weapons.

But since Al Qaeda is only popular with a fraction Pakistan’s population, seizing power through normal means wasn’t an option.  If put to a vote, Al Qaeda would not win, which is why they aren’t a fan of allowing people to express themselves.  Chaos is needed, the government needs to be destroyed and then Al Qaeda can fill the void and seize power.

There is an as yet unconfirmed report that Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility.  But while that claim is unconfirmed, the way in which Bhutto was assassinated lends credibility to the claim. 

Political assassins don’t generally kill themselves up after their goal is achieved, they tend to do what they do for a reason in their mind that they want to convey that reason to the people so they might be seen as a hero of whatever perverted cause has twisted their minds.  On the other hand, Islamo-fascists have a goal that is unlike others, their death and paradise is a normal individual objective for their actions.  While those in power have larger goals, those that carry out their twisted bidding have a short-term goal with no desire to survive. 

The assassin blew himself up after pulling the trigger.  Unless there is a note or video in his house explaining his insane reason for his actions, that is the calling card of terrorists. 

What happens now is up to the people of Pakistan.  Will they allow this tragedy to overtake their logic, to dishonor the memory of their fallen hero and create the environment their true enemy may well use to seize power?  Or will cooler heads prevail? 

We hope we’re wrong, that this was just a lone lunatic, but that’s what it looks like as of now.

Padding the resume – The (Fuzzy) Portrait of Hillary as First Lady

Of all places, the New York Timeshas taken a look at the claims made by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on the campaign trail about the experience she has that makes her, in her words, ”the most qualified candidate” running. 

On the most important issue facing the world, The Times writes:

Associates from that time said that she was aware of Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden and what her husband has in recent years characterized as his intense focus on them, but that she made no aggressive independent effort to shape policy or gather information about the threat of terrorism.

Hell, if knowing about Al Qaeda and bin Laden is what qualifies as the experience necessary, we’ll throw our hat into the ring – we watched the 20/20 interview with him, too.  And since Hillary didn’t have security clearance, that’s about all she knew too; unless the Clintons broke the law and spoke with each other about top secret intelligence, which they aren’t crazy enough to admit.

That hasn’t stopped Hillary from claiming a role in damn near everything that happened in those 8 years, except the obvious things she won’t talk about, like all the scandals and, well, you know.  History has a funny way of wiping memories…

Hillary could take credit for everything, including the Apollo space program, if she would simply release the millions of pages of documents she refuses to allow access to, even papers dating back to her days as First Lady of Arkansas.  Ironically, while she and her comrades on the Left decry the Bush Administration as “the most secretive in history,” a direct plea from her husband could shine a light on what she actually did do as First Lady. 

The truth, however, may well differ so dramatically from the verbal resume she is attempting to sell voters that the prospect of that seems remote, at best.  Were a Republican trying this, rest assured Woodwards and Bernsteins would be all over Little Rock and the National Archives like a rash looking for a leak.  They would also probably find one.  But it’s difficult to find what you’re not looking for.  Especially when the paper of record makes a simple, casual reference to a cover-up in plain sight.

Our Hollywood corespondent, Steven Weber, writes in a message for the new year. Since we’re on vacation and most of us are out of town, updating will be erratic, so we’re doubly grateful for Steven chiming in. For the record, we get at least 10 readers a day, not the 7-8 he references. Merry Christmas to all, thanks for reading and a why the hell are you reading this or any blog on Christmas day? Go find something better to do like hang with your family (or watch 24 hours of A Christmas Story on TBS) and come back tomorrow. 

And now, Steven Weber:

I want to thank you for letting me contribute to First
Fridays. It’s been interesting, fun and provocative despite the
lightweight content of my posts. I prefer that approach to actually
risking pissing off folks who could potentially buy me drinks.
But before I wish you all a happy new year, I would like to
spout some shallow platitudes.

In the year leading up to the next presidential election,
there is reason for me to believe that, unlike other elections where
impassioned geeks on both sides state that it will be the most
important this country has ever had, this election will be—ahem—
the most important one the country’s ever had. Because more than ever
it seems to me (a Brit Humian qualifier if there ever was one. And
man, is it freeing!) as far as leadership is concerned, the messenger
has become the message, the style has become the substance. If any of
FF’s good readers can’t see through the Huckabees, the Romneys, the
Giulianis, the Hillarys (that last one was a lobbed softball if there
ever was one) and fail equally to take, say, a Ron Paul or a Dennis
Kucinich seriously, then there is a real impediment to seeing the
most important promise a democracy offers its citizens fulfilled. And
at a time when the message is homogenized, weakened and reduced to
evoking basic knee jerk responses from a cowed and distracted
electorate rather than thoughtful responses from an informed and
trusted one, I’m afraid I see terrible problems now and in the future
and with little hope for abatement. When profit trumps liberty, when
consuming material goods has become as essential to Americans’ lives
as breathing, then the spirit in which this country was founded is in
peril and the downhill slide is ever more speedy and inexorable. I
don’t think America was ever meant to become a massive strip mall run
by a handful of commercial interests catering almost exclusively to
the well-off. Religion has a place but was never meant to take
precedence over reason. A monopolized media was meant to be deterred
as the enemy of the essential, unfiltered dispensing of truth. Thrift
and responsibility was prized in government, as well as faith in its
charitable instincts over its warring ones. Ingenuousness was
expected in its elected officials rather than the knowing wink and
the accepted exchange of money. And the only thing to be truly feared
was ignorance.

To me, moderation is the key to our nation’s survival; not the
eradication of diverse points of view but rather their inclusion; to
banish extremism and mediocrity to the fringes of society where they
belong rather than letting them influence policy too strongly,
infecting the mainstream and breeding a mob mentality; to give
citizens true participation in government by making sure that the
voting process is free from manipulation and corruption; to cherish
quietude over the constant din of advertisements, rushing to buy up
every available piece of psychological and emotional real estate, and
thereby making every human experience a potential commercial
transaction. History shows humanity’s proudest periods of
enlightenment to be sadly infrequent; the depths we have fallen to
making up the majority of the telling of the human tale and
invariably occurring when people are exploited as disposable rabble
by a powerful few, plunging the entire species back into its basest
tribal beginnings.

All that said, one of the things that has lifted me from my
liberal-wussie-actor bullshit melancholy was the good humor and
positivity I experienced in the blog exchange on FF. It was, despite
the sensational approach you take on a range of topics (I assume to
whip your readership into a Pat Buchannanesque rake and hoe toting
angry mob) you betrayed the hyperbole usually associated with such
right-wing drivel (hah!) by being, well, really cool. And that alone
indicates a productive, beneficial and prosperous future worthy of
the promise of America, rather than the one foisted upon us by greed
obsessed capitalisto-fascists in Conservative clothing. We know who
they are. They just think we don’t give a shit. But we do, right?

And so to all seven or eight of you who read this, happy new
year. And let’s get ‘em in ‘08!

Was Will Smith the victim of a press hit or does he really see the good in Hitler?

“Even Hitler didn’t wake up going, ‘Let me do the most evil thing I can do today’.

“I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was ‘good’. Stuff like that just needs reprogramming.”

Those lines are attributed to Will Smith, star of I Am Legend.  Was he serious?  Did he really say that?  We certainly hope not! 

That last paragraph of the story shows a need to purchase the author of the piece a history book, too.

Hitler’s totalitarian leadership as Fuhrer during 1934 until his eventual suicide in 1945 resulted in the persecution of an estimated six million Jews in the Holocaust, and his invasion of Poland in 1939 led to the start of the Second World War.

Um, six million Jews didn’t simply face “persecution,” they and five million others were used as slave labor and murdered.  Persecution is an uneducated, at best, word choice, at worst, well, do the math.

The Anti-Defamation League is calling on Smith to apologize and Barack Obama, of all people, to refutiate Smith because Smith supports Obama.  While it would be good politics for Obama to point out the stupidity of the statement and the story, here’s a rather effective defense of Smith’s statement.

And Smith’s reps released a statement slamming the story and saying what every sane person thinks of Hitler.  This, coupled with Volokh’s argument and the complete lack of douchebaggery on Smith’s part throughout his life lends credence to the argument that the reporter, and we use the term loosely, saw an opportunity to make a story and name for himself and nothing more.  Based upon everything we know, the reporter (someone called WENN) is the clear douchebag here. 

So go see I Am Legend (no, we don’t have a stake in the movie, though we wish we did) because it looks pretty good.

The Ronald Reagan of South Korea?

Okay, the title’s probably a big exaggeration, but Tax-news.com reports that the new President of South Korea wants to cut tax rates and reduce the burden of government spending. Combined with other steps to reduce needless regulation, it appears the Asian nation is going to take big steps in the right direction:

President-elect of Korea Lee Myung-bak, who will be inaugurated in February, has proposed swingeing tax cuts and other market-friendly policies for his new administration. …Lee has pledged 12.6 trillion won in tax cuts, lowering the maximum corporate tax rate by stages to 20% from the current 25% and lowering oil-related taxes by 10%, paying for it by reducing government expenditures by as much as 20 trillion won. He also promises reductions in real-estate taxes. Lee says he will ease rules that restrict industrial groups from controlling banks. The current law bans industrial firms from owning more than 5% of a bank. He will also privatize major swathes of state-owned economic sectors, he said.

Tag-Team Battle: Rats and Bureaucrats vs. Cats and Entrepreneurs.

Tens of millions of Americans have cats in their homes, notwithstanding the possibility that some cat hair may get in their food. Bureaucrats in New York City, however, want to save consumers from this horrifying possiblity, so they fine store owners who keep cats on their premises. But the Grinches at the Health Department fail to realize that the cats are the most effective way of controlling rodents. This creates a no-win situation for entrepreneurs. They can keep a cat in the store and risk getting fined, or they can go without a cat and get fined for rodent infestation. The New York Times reports:

Amid the goods found in the stores, there is one thing that many owners and employees say they cannot do without: their cats. And it goes beyond cuddly companionship. These cats are workers, tireless and enthusiastic hunters of unwanted vermin, and they typically do a far better job than exterminators and poisons. When a bodega cat is on the prowl, workers say, rats and mice vanish. …But as efficient as the cats may be, their presence in stores can lead to legal trouble. The city’s health code and state law forbid animals in places where food or beverages are sold for human consumption. Fines range from $300 for a first offense to $2,000 or higher for subsequent offenses. …Still, many store owners keep cats despite the law, mainly because other options have failed and the fine for rodent feces is also $300. “It’s hard for bodega owners because they’re not supposed to have a cat, but they’re also not supposed to have rats,” said José Fernández, the president of the Bodega Association of the United States.

To understand what this really means, the article tells the story of Mr. Martinez, who is trying to earn a living while dealing with the mindless bureaucracy:

…last winter, a friend brought Mr. Martinez a marmalade kitten in need of a home. Mr. Martinez, who was skeptical of how one slinky kitten could fend off an army of hungry rats, set up a litter box in the back of the store, put down an old fleece jacket and named the kitten Junior. Within two weeks, Mr. Martinez said, “a miracle.” “Before you’d see giant rats running in off the streets into the store, but since Junior, no more,” he said. Junior sometimes brings Mr. Martinez mouse carcasses as gifts, which he said bothers him less than the smell that permeates his store when the exterminator’s victims die and rot under a freezer. In October, a health inspector fined Mr. Martinez $300 and warned him that if Junior was still there by the time of the next inspection he would be fined $2,000. “He wants me to get rid of the cat, but the rats will take over if I do,” Mr. Martinez said. “I need the cat, and the cat needs a home.” Because stores do not get advance notification of an inspection, Mr. Martinez is trying to keep Junior in his office as much as possible. Many bodega owners reason that a cat is less of a health threat than an army of nibbling rats. “If cats live in homes and apartments where people have food, a cat shouldn’t be a threat in a store if it’s well maintained,” Mr. Fernández said.

We don’t have much opportunity to patronize New York City bodegas, but we’d prefer cats over rats. Too bad the city’s bureaucracy doesn’t let the market decide which animal should take precedence.

Douchebag of the Week.

This week’s winner has been around a long time and was once an important player in the world of news.  The onset of the Internet has seen our winner’s influence decline, but once a year our winner does something everyone takes note of.  What it does is name “Person of the Year,” which makes our Douchebag of the Week Time magazine.

What did Time do?  They named Vladimir Putin “Person of the Year.”  It’s not the fact that General David Patraeus has had a larger, more important impact on the world (and came in 4th), it’s because their write-up of Putin reads more like a Valentine’s card than an assessment of a man who has retarded freedom in Russia and positioned himself to be in power of life in what was just a few years ago a budding democracy.

Yes, Putin is corrupt ($40 billion so), but that’s not the point.  While Putin was first, Al Gore was second, then JK Rowling (author of the Harry Potter books), then China’s leader, Hu Jintao.  Finally, General Patraeus.

We don’t even criticize Time for saying this of the corrupt Putin, “His final year as Russia’s President has been his most successful yet.”  We expect insanity from our left-wing friends. 

Time wins because they thought a dictator in the making, a political hack and environmental hypocrite, an author of children’s books and communist leader had a more profound and important impact on the world than a man who is bringing stability to Iraq in the face of incredible odds and Congressional Leadership actively working to undercut his chance for success. 

This is not a surprise, or a disappointment, but typical of Time. And that is why Timeis out Douchebag of the week.

NOTE: While Time isn’t nominated, don’t forget to vote for Douchebag of the Year.  The “winner” will be announced the the first week of January, so, like Democrats in Chicago, vote early and often.

Bill: Hillary is better at YOUR life than you are!

Bill Clinton was in New Hampshire yesterday giving a speech, nothing new there, but the tone of that speech was something new for either of the Clintons, it contained some honesty.

Speaking for more than 2 hours, Bill basically said Hillary would be better at living your life than you are. 

“The reason she ought to be president, over and above her vision and her plans is that she has proven in every position she has ever had in life, whether it was in elected office or not, that she is a world-class genius in making positive changes in other people’s lives.”

You’re no good at living your life, she’s better, elect her and let her lead your life. 

The arrogance in that statement is beyond the pale, but is typical Liberalism. Let government do stuff for you.  They always seem to leave out the fact that government fails at everything it tries to impose on people because one-size-fits-all never works when dealing with individuals.  And, despite the left-wing insistence, we are individuals.

This is the mentality that comes through in survey after survey showing people dissatisfied with Congress but having a favorable view of their Congressman, people unhappy with the state of health care but content with their health insurance.

The media reports horrible rarities as the norm, people seem these reports and they taint an industry or institution, but in reality, unless they are one of the very few impacted by the rarity, their situation is fine.  There isn’t the corporate bogeyman waiting to screw them over if they get sick, there isn’t someone paying off their representative, and they are doing just fine leading their lives.

It’s only the people who have no desire to do the work needed to improve their lives who want government to do it, and they are the least deserving among us. 

That is not to say there can’t be a helping hand for people, but no way of life.  Someone toiling away waiting for someone to recognize them as a genius and pay them for being a genius deserve what they get, as does someone who works hard and earns something.

One should not be punished for the other’s sake.

Showing just how good her word is, Hillary goes negative.

The Clinton campaign is getting ready for war, with Democrats. 

They’ve snapped up a couple of domain names so they could cover their tracks, but that’s been exposed.  They’ll either go ahead as planned or use a different IP address to buy up some others to hide their fingerprints.  But make no mistake about it, desperate times require sleazy measures in the Clinton world.

Cynthia McKinney’s back, and hoping to be the Green Party candidate for president.

Yes, Cynthia McKinney, the former congresswoman who assaulted a Capitol Hill police officer for not recognizing her. Somehow we doubt that being the Green presidential candidate will result in her being recognized by anyone else…(seems green is not only the color of envy, but the color of green with envy for class warfare.)

 The speech is nonsense, of course, but best part is the comments section:

mqduck (1 day ago) Show Hide Marked as spam  -1   Reply | Spam McKinney will be the best Green party presidential candidate to date. She is very well respected, has proved her electability, has experience and the appeal of having once been a Democrat who bailed, like many of the voters she wishes to woo.

taureandevi (1 day ago) Show Hide Marked as spam +2   Reply | Spam I am currently supporting Kucinich but now have my second choice.

I am seriously considering splitting my efforts to include McKinney. She is a power voice of truth.

More likely Cynthia just doesn’t want to get a real job, not that she ever really did one when she was in Congress.

Socialism is the reason for the season!

“Here’s my gift to you…which I payed for with your money! Merry Chr–! I mean Happy Holidays!!!”

If nothing else, a pretty good depiction of the underlying idiocy upon which the Democrats’ policies are predicated.

You are responsible for nothing!  Therefore, you are able to achieve nothing.  Clinton voters, hope you’re happy with where you are in life right now because it’s where you, your children, your grandchildren and everyone else are going to be stuck indefinitely.  Socialism equals stagnation, not just in the economy, but in social mobility.  Achievement is punished.  But fear not, it doesn’t really happen in socialism anyway.

Most heavy handed Congress in history

Some good stats from the GOP side of the Rules Commitee:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi – “[W]e promised the American people that we would have the most honest and open government and we will.” (Press stakeout, December 6, 2006).

 Now that the first year of the new Democratic Majority is on the books, it’s worth taking a few moments to examine if they lived up to their promise to run the “most honest and open government.”  When the facts are laid out, the emptiness of that promise becomes clear.   The hallmarks of this Majority have been heavy-handedness, a lack of deliberation, and a rejection of the pledges of openness they made as they prepared to assume control.

The bottom line is this – in the first session of this Congress, the Majority has considered more legislation under closed rules, more legislation under restrictive rules, rejected more Minority amendments, allowed fewer Minority substitutes, rewritten more bills in the Rules Committee, and provided less time to review legislation than the previous Congress did.  Here are the facts:

109th Congress, 1st Session	110th Congress, 1st Session
21 closed rules	46 closed rules
64 restrictive rules	103 restrictive rules
138 Minority amendments allowed	121 Minority amendments allowed
9 Minority substitutes allowed	8 Minority substitutes allowed
17 bills rewritten in Rules Committee	30 bills rewritten in Rules Committee
2.3 days to review legislation	1.4 days to review legislation

  These statistics only tell part of the story.  This year also saw a rejection of regular order for the key bills considered by this Congress, an abandonment of the standard conference committee process, a new practice in the Rules Committee of denying Members of Congress the opportunity to submit amendments for consideration, the yanking of bills from the floor mid-debate, repeated attempts to alter or eliminate the Minority’s ability to offer a Motion to Recommit, and a scandal surrounding the Majority’s overturning of a House vote.   The list of the broken promises of this Majority goes on and on, yet their list of accomplishments does not.  Their decision to run the House with such a heavy hand has quite obviously led to less bipartisanship, less productivity, and less work done for the American people.   Rules Committee Ranking Republican David Dreier (R-San Dimas, CA) said the Majority’s record is not one of which they can be proud.  “The Democratic Majority has decided to use the rules of the House to prevent deliberation and bipartisanship.  And ironically, they have almost nothing to show for it.  One would think their heavy hand would have allowed them to produce results they wanted, but the opposite has happened.  Perhaps the Majority will live up to their promises in the New Year, but their record thus far doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.”

News of the Weird, News of the World, News of…Whatever! Christmas edition.

As Christmas approaches we find ourselves knee-deep in odd Christmas stories, so here you go.  Merry Christmas.

Story #1

Nothing say Christmas Spirit like an old fashioned brawl at your kid’s Christmas pageant.  In their stocking?  A certificate for 3 hots and a cot.

Story #2

We’re pretty sure that shooting Santa out of the sky is the best way to get on the fast track to getting stiffed at Christmas.  We wouldn’t think this would need to be said, but it would seem some Brazilians didn’t get the memo, so they shot at Santa in a chopper.

Story #3

Santa is going to be able to make his trip around the world in record time this year since he will be able to skip a 1.6 billion Chinese.  Christmas trees have been outlawed in public places because they pose a fire hazard.  Non-flammable freedom is also banned in China for some reason.

Story #4

Forgery is never a good idea, but forging letters from Santa, especially obscene letters from Santa, is probably a worse idea.  Though it’s damn funny, the author of these letters how has Dudley Do-Right on his tail.

Story #5

Naughty girls need love, too, but they shouldn’t try to get it from Santa, he’s married.  A 33 year old woman got a little too friendly for this Santa’s taste.  Though she is expected to find a 52″ plasma TV under her tree now.

Typical Clinton attack plan – Have someone else do it, then say you’re sorry once it’s out there.

As we told you yesterday, former Senator Bob Kerrey was spreading the rumors and lies about Barack Obama that have been circulating on the Internet for months, rumors that have been debunked a long time ago.  But they’re too good to let go of, they could scare people, so a desperate Clinton campaign needs to keep them alive without doing so directly.  Enter Bob Kerrey.

Now that word has spread about the lies, the time for the apology is upon us.  But, in typical political fashion, the apology is not really an apology.

“What I found myself getting into in Iowa – and it was my own fault – it was the wrong moment to do it and it was insulting,” Kerrey told the AP. “I meant no disrespect at all.”

Translation:

The story is out there once again and will hopefully sink into the minds of some voters, making them vote for Hillary.  I can’t say this was planned by the campaign because Hillary is all positive, roses and sunshine, so it was my fault alone.  I won’t be fired like the guy who pointed out that Obama had used drugs in his life, I’m too valuable. And I totally meant disrespect by it.

What does he mean by “it was the wrong moment to do it”?  Is there a right moment to slander someone?

And those apologies that say “Sorry you were offended” are not really apologies.  Think about it.

This is typical Clinton, both of them.

The Gobal Warming crowd needs to make sure everyone gets their spin memos.

A growing number of scientists are becoming skeptical of dogma spewed by Al Gore, Pope Goreus the IV in the Church of Global Warming.  Seems 400 of them are openly questioning the belief that humans, by contributing less than half a percent of the carbon released into the atmosphere, are dooming the planet. 

It would seem they are familiar with the fact that the earth’s temperature is controlled by fluctuations in the sun and not fluctuations in the octane of your gasoline choices.  Also, the fact that temperatures rise first, then carbon in the atmosphere increases, about a 500-800 year lag between the two, therefore, in the world of Gore, making the effect the cause, which is impossible.

Expect these scientists to be ignored since to acknowledge the facts they point out would be to cut off juicy government grants, the bread and wine of the Church of Global Warming, and the reason it exists in the first place.

If Obama wants to put a Republican in his cabinet, why not pick a real one?

Barack Obama has said repeatedly that he would reach out to Republicans if he were elected President, seems he’s a uniter, not a divider.  Recently, while opining about who would serve in his administration, Obama started name-dropping potential cabinet members and the Republican he mentioned was anything but a Republican.

Arnold Schwartzenegger, governor of California, was the Republican he mentioned.  If this is reaching out to Republicans, Obama must have very short arms!

Schwartzenegger is about as Republican as Hillary. 

Obama will have to do better than that if he’s expected to be taken seriously as someone who can bridge the political divide.

Clinton campaign going positive, their surrogates are the ones going negative.

Now that Hillary has decided to run a positive campaign, she’s had to release the hounds to attack Obama.  If this is positive…

Another Clinton Smear Tactic, Courtesy of Bob Kerrey

Washington Post

NYT Caucus Blog

And our favorite, “Smiling as he twists the knife” from FP Blog

The Corner rips Dick Durbin a well deserved new one.

Illinois Senator Dick “our troops are like Nazis” Durbin can often be found on CSPAN in late evening hours of the day delivering rambling political speeches no one watches or cares about for what seems like forever.  Seriously, when the Senate comes back into session, flip on CSPAN at 11:00 for 2 weeks straight and you will see him a lot.  Probably more than his family does, which may not be a bad thing for them if you listen to his speeches.

Anyway, he was on the floor yesterday complaining about Senator Jim DeMint taking issue with Democratic Leadership’s (of which Durbin is number 2) push to vote on the omnibus bill without having had a realistic chance to read it.  Congress often votes for things without reading them, generally things that are forced through by Leadership with friendly sounding names, because if people (especially the public) had a chance to learn what was in them they would be outraged (see the immigration debate).

DeMint wanted to read a bill that contained hundreds of billions of dollars in domestic spending to see HOWthat money was being spent.  Durbin didn’t like that, which means it’s much worse than we thought.

So Durban took to the floor and said:

“For 46 hours and 8 minutes-the Senator from South Carolina has had an opportunity to go to the Internet and see this bill in its entirety, with his staff, and to read every page… Please, do not come to the floor and suggest that this is a mystery bill which no one has seen. For 2 days, this has been posted on the Internet . You have had your chance. Every Senator has had a chance.”

Well, never take anything Dick Durban says at face value because that value is $0. 

This is where The Corner steps in.  They busted out a calculator and did the math.  The 3,417 page bill breaks down this way:

According to Senator Durbin’s math: A Senator that downloaded the bill when it was posted at 12:15 a.m. Monday morning would have had to:

• Read nearly 1.25 pages of the bill every minute for 46 hours and 8 minutes,
• Not sleep,
• Not eat,
• Take no bathroom breaks.

If you’ve ever had the misfortune of reading a bill even close to that long, not a bill that is short and to the point, we’re sorry.  Congress should not move to ban waterboarding until they ban anyone having to read legislation!  That’s true torture. 

Try reading the bill yourself, after the monster downloads, at this great website.

At the end of the exchange below, not in the clip, DeMint asked Durbin if he’d read the bill.  Dick didn’t answer.

Two stories of Santa – One naughty, one nice-ish.

It’s not easy being Santa these days.  You can’t say “ho, ho, ho” out of fear of offending women who, it would seem, have lived sheltered lives, yet the Jolly Green Giant is free to say it any time he wants.

Now comes the story of a Santa knocked out by a thrown object.  Not cool the chuck rocks at Santa, no matter how crappy your Christmas may have been.

On the other hand, and we do mean hand, Santa was groped by a 33 year old woman in this story.  No word yet on which list she will find herself.

Merry Christmas.

What you missed if you missed Hitchens at Reason

You should’ve been there.

Surrender: The Only Way to End the War

According to Bill Richardson, the Iraq policies of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards are not weak enough. He’ll make sure our troops’ efforts and lives are all for naught, by surrendering immediately.

What’s scariest about this is not that Richardson could become commander-in-chief and actually implement this policy; he almost certainly will not win the nomination, though he does seem to be gunning for a VP or cabinet role in a Dem administration. The really scary thing about this ad is that its message is clearly calibrated to appeal to the Democratic base, who have demonstrated a pathological obsession with opposing the war, willingly ignoring the fact that we’re winning.

Could this be the Clintons handy work?

Remember a while back when there were stories floating around about “big news” about a presidential candidate but no one wanted to touch the story because it couldn’t be confirmed?  Well, this could be it. 

It’s a story about how John Edwards has a love child on the way with a former contract employee of the campaign.  Not worth going into or recounting, it’s the Enquirer after all.  But they did break the Jesse Jackson story, so…

Anyway, who would’ve leaked this, true or not?  It would have to be a campaign because no one else would have incentive to do so.  It wouldn’t be a Republican because Edwards isn’t going to win the nomination anyway, so there’s no point wasting time on him.

Obama doesn’t have much to gain and risks too much by having this come back to him.  He’s leading right now, taking down Edwards doesn’t make any sense.

That leaves the inventors of the Politics of Personal Destruction; the Clintons.

What does Hillary have to gain from this?  If Edwards fades in Iowa there’s a pretty good shot she gets a lot of his support, same goes for South Carolina.  That would help her lagging campaign significantly. 

Just speculation at this point, but it does fit the Clinton mold.  Let’s just hope none of it is true.

Bill Clinton gets smacked down the First President Bush

Bill Clinton, running around Iowa in a desperate attempt to pull his wife’s campaign up from nosedive it is currently in, yesterday made one of many of his stupid, unsubstantiated claims he’s been making this election season; only this time he was called out on it.

Claiming President George H W Bush would be part of a goodwill mission to the rest of the world to basically apologize for his son’s presidency when Hillary is President, Bill was hoping to tap into the Liberal mindset that says the rest of the world hates us because we’re bullies.  That was simply stupid.

Liberals are the only ones who think the world hates us and we’re bullies in need of an image stylist, not to mention the fact that the Bush family is very loyal (something unknown to the Clintons).

So today the first President Bush released a statement that is the equivalent of a smack upside the head of the Clintons.

GHWB’s spokesman said he, “wholeheartedly supports the President of the United States, including his foreign policy. He has never discussed an ‘around-the-world-mission’ with either former President Bill Clinton or Sen. Clinton, nor does he think such a mission is warranted since he is proud of the role America continues to play around the world as the beacon of hope for freedom and democracy.”

In other words, “The Clintons are desperate and have spent the last 7 years hurting this nation with their unfounded, unwarranted and untrue political attacks against my son, now they want to drop my name as if I support them?  No way in hell!  I’ll do what I must for my country, as I always have, but if they think I’m going to be used as a political pawn in their power-grab game President Clinton must’ve finally learned how to inhale.”

Go GWHB!

Political Reconciliation, A History

Surrounded by a hostile country to the north, a hostile country to the south, and hostile neighbors to the east, a once struggling nation engaged in a long war against its decree ruling tyrant and his sympathizers. With the help of a great foreign power, this country was able to win its freedom, and ensure basic rights to man. Despite the military victories in a war nearly considered lost, this one country struggled for years to erect a working government, and the world doubted it would ever endure. This country was deeply divided geographically, religiously, and tyrant sympathizers still lingered.

Ted Kennedy (who is the senator that looks the most like “Fat Bastard” from Austin Powers), Pelosi’s, and Reid’s have all fallen flat on their political faces arguing against the surge; to redeem themselves, they declare that Iraq still is lost, because: the political solution is still as “evasive as ever.”  They are ready to give up on a country that is divided religiously, geographically, forced to rely on a foreign power, and surrounded by unsympathetic countries. Kennedy has pointed out that the US entered WWII, and 4 years later, we had victory. Here’s what you missed while boozing your life away, Teddy.

Abraham Lincoln later spoke of the country described in the first paragraph. His words were: “…our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, dedicated in Liberty…”. In case anyone had forgotten, (like Ted), the U.S. became an independent country in 1776, and had not finalized its working government until 1791 (when the Bill of Rights came into effect, First Friday considers them important to government). That’s 15 years. First Friday is not saying we are committed to having troops in Iraq for 15 years, but we are saying, give them a chance. It took the greatest country on Earth 15 years to get its act together; a country with Quakers, Puritans, Catholics, Anglicans surrounded by British in Canada, and Spanish to the south. Give Iraq a chance.

The Iraqis may be moving slowly in government, but slowly is better than nothing. The Iraqi government is taking over the neighbor security program in which neighborhood groups are paid to patrol their own turf.  This gives those Iraqis patrolling the streets a vested interest in seeing their government survive, it’s going to pay the money for working. If the government fails, they will not get money. Hopefully the transition goes smoothly, First Friday is willing to give Iraq a chance.