Sammy Sosa Lightens Up

His people claim he's not trying to be like Michael Jackson, who's as dead as Sammy Sosa's career and reputation.

What's going on with Sammy Sosa's face?

The former Cubs slugger's skin looks startlingly lighter in photographs that have been splashed around the Internet since Friday, but Sosa's people are claiming the dramatic change is the result of a "skin rejuvination" treatment.

The photos, taken at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino Wednesday, have been widely circulated on the Internet. A friend told the Chicago Tribune Sosa the change is a side effect from a skin treatment.

"He's not trying to be Michael Jackson," former Cubs employee Rebecca Polihronis, who talks frequently with Sosa, told the Tribune.

"He is going through a rejuvenation process for his skin. Women have it all of the time. He was surprised he came out looking so white. I thought it was a body double. Part of (the photo appearance) is just the lighting.

"The picture is deceiving. He said, 'If you saw me in person, you would be surprised. When you see me in person, it is not going to seem like the picture,'" Polihronis told the paper.

Thanks for clearing that up.

Here's a before and after:

'It Would Be a Shame If Our Diversity Became a Casualty as Well'

Actually, the shame is we have so many casualties because of our obeisance to diversity.

A top Army official warned Sunday morning that the bloody shooting at Fort Hood could cause a backlash against Muslim soldiers.

"Frankly, I am worried," said U.S. Army chief of staff George Casey. "It would be a shame -- as great a tragedy as this was -- it would be a shame if our diversity became a casualty as well."

Some have speculated that Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged gunman who killed 13 people and wounded 30 more on Thursday, acted out of revenge for fallen Muslims during the American war on terror.

"I worry that the speculation could cause something that we don't want to see happen," Casey told CNN.

Yes, let's just ignore the mountain of evidence and keep our heads in the sand.

God forbid we offend somebody.

Some 3,500 self-declared Muslims serve in the US armed forces. Experts suggest there are actually many more closeted Muslims in the armed forces who are afraid to openly declare their faith.

How many of them are time bombs like this maniac Hasan?

One also wonders whether we'd be hearing about diversity if the killer was a pro-life Christian?

Here's a simple test: If Nidal Malik Hasan had been a devout Christian with pronounced anti-abortion views, and had he attacked, say, a Planned Parenthood office, would his religion have been considered relevant as we tried to understand the motivation and meaning of the attack? Of course. Elite opinion makers do not, as a rule, try to protect Christians and Christian belief from investigation and criticism. Quite the opposite. It would be useful to apply the same standards of inquiry and criticism to all religions.

That might actually entail some diversity of thought.

I guess because of diversity we were too afraid to even confront Hasan. Now we have 13 victims dead becasue of diversity.

Wonderful.

Communist Goods Making a Comeback

The way I figure it, sales of this poster probably helped jumpstart the comeback.

Once the butt of jokes the world over, communist-era East European goods from sweets, to rustic washing machines and clunky cars are all the rage again.

As the world prepares to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, souvenirs such as portraits of Romanian leader Nicolae Ceausescu are now avidly sought at markets. In Belgrade, cafes are named after Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito or even the Soviet KGB secret police.

Two decades on, many who then welcomed change now want to turn the clock back by eating Szerencsi chocolate, driving Trabant two-stroke cars or using Frania washing machines to wash carrots.

Nothing is too tacky, the quality never too questionable. For older people there is the nostalgia of the bad old days. Among younger people there is a curiosity to find out how their parents lived.

Many food brands have made a comeback on supermarket shelves using the same packaging that made them look so old fashioned and unwanted between 1945 and 1990.

"For a few years now there has been a tendency to bring back brands from the communist era. It makes us feel nostalgic, reminds us of our youth," said Romanian sociologist Mircea Kivu.

"These products remind me of my childhood. I would much rather eat a Szerencsi chocolate bar than a Mars," said Tamas Pickarczyk, a 27-year-old car salesman in Budapest.

"In my opinion Szerencsi tastes better. It is better quality but most of all it brings back good memories."

Ah yes, fond memories like gulags and mass murder.

The glory days, indeed.

Stunner: Donations to Rangel Shrine Dry Up

Frankly I'm surprised the Democrats aren't forcing people to donate to Rangel's monument to himself. They're busy raping our wallets as it is to shove ObamaCare down our throats, so what's a measly couple million more to build up one of the chief hacks in the party?

Donors have contributed just $3,315 to the Rangel Center at City College since the Harlem congressman became enmeshed in scandal last fall.

The center -- which critics have derided as a "monument to me" -- needs $30 million to renovate a derelict building in Harlem and fulfill its mission to prepare minority students for public-service careers.

But data provided by the college shows Rangel's pet project has amassed just $6.6 million in pledges, and only $650,000 in cash contributions, since fund-raising began in 2005.

The pledges have dried up completely, and the cash donations slowed to a trickle, since September 2008. That's when a congressional ethics committee began a far-reaching probe into the lawmaker's alleged tax dodges, misuse of rent-stabilized apartments, influence-peddling, and soliciting donations for the center on congressional letterhead.

"There have been no additional pledges since that time," said Mary Lou Edmondson, spokeswoman for City College. "Given the general state of the economy, of course, last year was not an easy year for fund-raising."

I get it. Bush is to blame.

Maybe if they just call it rhe Obama-Pelosi-Rangel Center the cash would start flowing in.

In The Reading Room

111TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. R. 3962
To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes.

I like the and for other purposes part.

For the morbidly curious, here's the entire bill to peruse at your pleasure.

'Get Well Soon Major Nidal. We Love You'

Considering the hatred this jerk has for America, one can only wonder how he hasn't managed to snag a spot in the Obama administration. His views certainly aren't any more radical than Van Jones.

The soldiers at Fort Hood had it coming, says a radical Muslim in Queens who travels to mosques around the city spreading anti-American hate and has sent a "Get Well Soon" message to the major behind the Texas massacre.

"An officer and a gentleman was injured while partaking in a pre-emptive attack," Yousef al-Khattab wrote on his Web site, called "Revolution Muslim." "Get well soon Major Nidal. We love you."

In the twisted logic of al-Khattab, who was born Jewish in New Jersey and converted to Islam in 2004, the 13 slain and 38 wounded Army victims gunned down by the radical one-man sleeper cell were "terrorists" who deserved to die.

"These people are soldiers in a volunteer army," he told The Post during a sitdown at a Woodside, Queens, cafe. "They expect to see combat. They know the danger."

"Rest assured the slain terrorists at Ft. Hood are in the eternal hellfire," al-Khattab writes on his Web site.

Classy. I imagine those nice folks at MSNBC will be having him on for some special commentary one of these days.

Well, the FBI is certainly aware of this maggot and we just have to live with him.

Like Hasan -- whose pro-homicide bomber rhetoric on the Web had caught the authorities' attention -- the FBI is well aware of al-Khattab's dangerous online lunacy, but they are unable to do much about it as he just skirts the line between protected speech and inciting violence.

"It's terrible. It's reprehensible. For the mosques it's a p.r. nightmare. He's probably putting members of the mosque in danger from attacks from non-Muslims, but he's not breaking the law," said Barry Covert, a First Amendment lawyer in Buffalo.

Funny, but I don't see anyone from any mosques denouncing this. For a PR nightmare they sure seem to be taking things in stride.

In other news, this maniac Hasan is now linked to the 9/11 terrorists. Great thing we're so politically correct and sensitive.

Hasan, the sole suspect in the massacre of 13 fellow US soldiers in Texas, attended the controversial Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, Virginia, in 2001 at the same time as two of the September 11 terrorists, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. His mother's funeral was held there in May that year.

The preacher at the time was Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Yemeni scholar who was banned from addressing a meeting in London by video link in August because he is accused of supporting attacks on British troops and backing terrorist organisations.

"The American People Will Never Forget It"

While you were watching your favorite college football team, or not so favorite team yesterday, the House of Representatives were hard at work taking even more of your freedom and independence away. I would like to thank Rep Pence, and others who stood to oppose this government takeover, not just of healtchcare, but of so much of our lives.

My representative, David Scott (D-GA), whom a lot of people around here refer to as Nancy Pelosi's lap dog or San Frans second representative, of course voted with his party and in so doing doomed one of the largest employers in the state. Smooth move Ex-Lax.

Thank you Mr Pence, for trying.

Congress Voted To Fire Me Last Night

I didn't get much sleep last night. Yes, part of it was staying up to watch the debate and the vote on the Pelosi Health Care bill which I would flip back and forth to while trying to watch various football games, but the real insomnia was caused by the result of their vote.

Their vote in essence caused me, and just about everybody else who works for a health insurance company, onto the unemployment rolls. It doesn't matter whether you are a claims adjuster, work a call center, sell the policies or some other job and you work for a private health insurance company or you are one of the evil heads of the corporation, your shelf life for having a job if the Pelosicare bill becomes fact is about five years.

The reason I have not wrote much on the healthcare debate is because I needed to tread very lightly so that I was complying with company rules regarding conflicts of interests and rules regarding release of information. I could bore you with all kinds of internal memos, complete with spreadsheets and Word documents to try and persuade you, but the time for that is gone. Most of the information was provided to Congress and still the Democrats voted to turn your healthcare over to the government; they have voted now and either way I will be out of a job, so I feel there is no harm.

A couple of things I can tell you that are hard facts are this. If you currently have a private insurance policy, starting in 2011 your premiums will double if you are lucky, and in most cases triple. It is unavoidable. It is the cost associated with the legislation which the insurance companies have no choice in but passing on. You will start paying these higher rates even though their government option will not be available to you for another three years.

Number two, watch your business headlines over the next month or so and look for the stories which have Humana or Cigna or Wellpoint announcing layoffs. It will start with 10% cuts probably and just be a continual drip, drip, drip every quarter. The company I work for laid off 1500 between January and March of this year and no doubt right here at Christmas time we announce another round equal to that next week.

Scare tactics, you say? The cuts would have happened anyway, you think? Think again. I will spend tomorrow all day in meetings starting to lay out the blueprint for how we will handle the shutdown of operations.

There will be a select few in this country who will be able to afford private insurance but for the vast majority of Americans this will not be an option for you anymore. There is specific language in the bill which prevents the creation of any new health insurance companies, which sort of flies in the face of their argument about increasing competition. Current companies cannot increase rates without government approval. You know those rate increases I talked about earlier? Well, Congress made sure that would not be possible meaning that the private insurance company cannot keep you as a customer even if they want. No such restriction applies to the government plan. They will be able to raise rates and cut benefits at will.

Yes, the Democrats, while proud of saying they have made insurance available for everyone, neglect to tell you that it won't be the insurance you enjoy today.

So America, enjoy your new health plan if it becomes a reality in a Democrat utopia and remember any government that is big enough to give you everything is also big enough to take it away.

My advice to anyone who works for a private insurance company is to dig out the resume, update it and try like hell to land one of the government jobs; no doubt an SEIU union membership goes along with it.

And cry for your children.

The Coming Train Wreck

We report. You decide.

Shutting off the miracle-drug spigot
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was right last week when she called her latest health-care-reform proposal a "historic moment": After decades of life-saving and cost-cutting scientific innovations from drug and medical-device companies, the government is about to step in and stifle the R&D that is our best hope for improving health outcomes.

Pelosi's bill may cost pharmaceutical companies $150 billion over a decade -- nearly double the amount they conceded when they cut a White House-approved deal with Sen. Max Baucus this summer.

The Pelosi bill is a prescription for fewer new life-saving drugs. By stifling innovation, it would hurt not only industry, but also all of us who'd benefit from new-drug development.

Democrats in Washington are out to cut health-care costs at the expense of the research-intensive (as opposed to generic) pharmaceutical industry. Yet drugs often improve the span and quality of life in a remarkably cost-effective way.

Innovative new drugs have helped many patients avoid costly hospitalization, for example. From 1980 to 2000, the number of days in the hospital per 100 people fell from 129.7 to 56.6, a drop of 56 percent -- so that Americans avoided 206 million days of hospital care in 2000 alone, according to Medtap International, which provides health economics and outcomes-research services.

And a study in 2000 sponsored by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research concluded that increased use of a blood-thinning drug would prevent 40,000 strokes a year, saving $600 million annually. A 1997 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found the costs of treatment per episode of major depression fell by 25 percent from 1991 to 1995, largely as a result of new medicines.

New drugs are also generally better than older ones at reducing mortality. In a study of patients who took drugs between January and June 2000, those who took newer medications were less likely to die by the end of 2002.

Yet Washington has grown increasingly hostile to the industry. R&D investments per new-drug introduction nearly doubled between the early '80s and early '90s -- but government approvals have been dropping. Even after drugs are approved for marketing, only about three in 10 now recoup their development costs.

And now Congress is out to make the climate for new-drug development significantly worse. The president has bragged that he intends to eke out huge cost savings at drug companies' expense: "The pharmaceutical industry has already said they're willing to put $80 billion on the table," adding, "We might be able to get $100 billion out or more." The industry was willing to "give" back its profits because it was told it wouldn't have a seat at the negotiating table if it didn't go along.

But now Pelosi has set up her own "negotiating table" -- nearly doubling the amount Washington would confiscate from the industry and planning vast cuts in what Medicare would pay for drugs -- a provision that the industry was assured was off the other table. Give 'em a hand, they'll take an arm.

And if going after the evil pharmaceutical companies isn't enough, let's go all out to cripple -- if not kill -- another vital component of American healthcare.

Nor are the drug companies the only target. The Pelosi bill has $20 billion in "user fees" (read: taxes) on medical-device manufacturers. New devices such as artificial joints, pacemakers and insulin pumps are often developed by small startup companies -- those least capable of paying these punitive up-front regulatory expenses. And the working Senate bill aims at $40 billion from the industry.

The tactics employed by the administration and Congress add up to sheer bullying -- and while they're battering the drug industry, patients are the ones ultimately getting beaten up.

Jeff Stier is an associate director of the American Council on Science and Health. Henry Miller, a physician and Hoover Institution fellow, was an FDA official from 1979 to 1994.

The Ministry of Public Enlightenment & Propaganda was unavailable for comment.

Via The NY Post

How's that for change, kooky komrade kommandante markos?

The 950th Time is Always a Charm

Maybe it's just me, but it seems some people just aren't meant to drive. But hey, let's give this woman points for persistence. I'd have probably thrown in the towel after failing 900 times.

A woman in South Korea who tried to pass the written exam for a driver's license with near-daily attempts since April 2005 has finally succeeded on her 950th time. The aspiring driver spent more than 5 million won ($4,200) in application fees, but until now had failed to score the minimum 60 out of a possible 100 points needed to get behind the wheel for a driving test.

Cha Sa-soon, 68, finally passed the written exam with a score of 60 on Wednesday, said Choi Young-chul, a police official at the drivers' license agency in Jeonju, 130 miles (210 kilometers) south of Seoul.

Police said Cha took the test hundreds of times, but had no specific total. Local media said she took the test 950 times.

Now she must pass a driving test before getting her license, Choi said.

Good luck with that.

Barney Was Smoking Something Else

Must be great being a Democrat with protected class status. Your boyfriend can be busted for drug possession and it doesn't even make the news for over two years and then you get to just play make believe and weakly claim you had no idea what was going on.

FOX25 has learned that Congressman Barney Frank was present during a marijuana arrest at James Ready's home in Ogunquit, Maine. Ready is well-known for his relationship with Congressman Frank.

According to a police report, police charged Ready with marijuana possession, cultivation and use of drug paraphernalia in August of 2007. Ready admitted to civil possession and paid a fine. The remaining charges were dismissed in 2008.

Sources tell FOX25 that when Frank was questioned he told police that he did not live in the house and that he only smoked cigars.

Cigars aren't the only thing Barney's been smoking, IYKWIMAITYD.

Via Hot Air.

Our Heads in the Sand

Ralph Peters sums up the Islamist murder spree at Fort Hood. Sadly he's one of the few who's telling it like it is.

On Thursday afternoon, a radicalized Muslim US Army officer shouting, "Allahu akbar!" ("God is great!") committed the worst act of terror on American soil since 9/11. And no one wants to call it an act of terror or associate it with Islam.

What cowards we are. Political correctness killed those patriotic Americans at Fort Hood as surely as the Islamist gunman did. And the media treat it like a case of nondenominational shoplifting.

This was a terrorist act. When an extremist plans and executes a murderous plot against our unarmed soldiers to protest our efforts to counter Islamist fanatics, it's an act of terror. Period.

When the terrorist posts anti-American hate speech on the Web; apparently praises suicide bombers and uses his own name; loudly criticizes US policies; argues (as a psychiatrist, no less) with his military patients over the worth of their sacrifices; refuses, in the name of Islam, to be photographed with female colleagues; lists his nationality as "Palestinian" in a Muslim spouse-matching program and parades around central Texas in a fundamentalist playsuit -- well, it only seems fair to call this terrorist an "Islamist terrorist."

But the president won't. Despite his promise to get to all the facts. Because there's no such thing as "Islamist terrorism" in ObamaWorld.

Read it all and pray for our future. With the clowns we have in DC there may not be much of one.

Paul Sperry echoes Peters.

And You Thought Football Was Rough

Meet Elizabeth Lambert. She likes playing dirty.

A New Mexico soccer player has become an Internet celebrity for the wrong reasons.

Junior defender Elizabeth Lambert was suspended Friday for her infractions the day before during a 1-0 loss to BYU in a Mountain West Conference semifinal. Lambert is seen in video from the game throwing elbows, colliding with several players and then yanking the ponytail of a BYU player who went crashing to the ground.

"My actions were uncalled for," Lambert said in a statement released by New Mexico. "I let my emotions get the best of me in a heated situation."

Lambert's actions brought unprecedented — and very unwanted — attention to the Mountain West women's soccer tournament.

Video highlights have been airing nationally since Thursday night and not because it was a thrilling game decided on Carlee Payne's header in the 31st minute. The focus of the highlights is more on Lambert's physical play, especially her takedown of BYU's Kassidy Shumway by grabbing her ponytail and pulling her backward.

Buy $15,000 Insurance Policy or Go To Jail

That is the options you have in the Pelosi healthcare bill and I don't think you get a choice to opt out.

“Criminal penalties

Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses. Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual:

• Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.

• Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.” [page 3]

According to the Congressional Budget Office the lowest cost family non-group plan under the Speaker’s bill would cost $15,000 in 2016.

One question for the Democrats who are the defenders of the poor and downtrodden in this country. Where are they supposed to get the money to pay for an insurance policy?

Nevermind, silly me. Of course you will confiscate it from others to pay for it.

Exit question. What happens when there is no more money to steal from the wealthy or honest taxpayers?

Awful: A Fort Hood Murder Victim Was Pregnant

This sickening murder spree by the cold-blooded Muslim killer just gets worse by the minute.

A fresh tragedy added to the horror of the Fort Hood massacre Friday when it was revealed that one of the victims was a pregnant soldier.

Francheska Velez, who returned to the U.S. just three days earlier from a foreign posting, was filling out paperwork when a gunman hollered "Allahu Akbar!" and embarked on a bloody rampage that left her and a dozen others dead.

A 21-year-old Chicagoan, Velez was six-weeks pregnant when she was cut down on Thursday, FOX Chicago News reported.

Of course since that is a FOX report, it must not be considered real news according to our moral superiors at the White House, but I'm running with it anyway.

Velez was a sitting duck when the accused gunman, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, yelled "God is great" in Arabic and opened fire with the two guns he'd smuggled into an intake center, Col. John Rossi said at a post-massacre briefing.

Hasan might have claimed even more victims were it not for Officer Kimberly Munley, a courageous civilian cop who shot Hasan four times - even after she was hit, officials said.

"She walked up and basically engaged him," Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the base commander at Fort Hood, said on 'Good Morning America' Friday. "I think, certainly, this could've been far worse."

Our Dear Leader urges us not to rush to any conclusions about this psychopathic killer. His side of the aisle knows all to well how that game is played after publicly convicting tea party activists for the "murder" of that census worked a couple of months ago.

ACORN's New Orleans HQ Raided

The New Orleans headquarters of the criminal enterprise know as ACORN was raided by the feds this morning and computers seized. Bertha Lewis is unavailable for comment, apparently. She must have to coordinate her talking points with her boss at the White House first.

Federal agents seized computers and other related equipment from the New Orleans ACORN offices Friday morning, according to Assistant Attorney General David Caldwell.

The seizures occurred starting at 8 a.m. at the offices on Canal Street after reports from ACORN attorneys that some material that might have been important to an investigation had disappeared.

Caldwell said the action occurred as part of an ongoing investigation into allegations of theft and embezzlement.

Theft and embezzlement related to ACORN? Knock me over with a feather.

The IRS already has $2 million in liens against this ACORN office for failure to pay taxes, even though it reportedly is their most lucrative office.

Update: The story was changed to say it was state agents who conducted the seizure this morning, not federal. Big Government has additional information. More at NOLA.

Early last month, Caldwell's office issued subpoenas for records from ACORN's New Orleans office, where the organization -- now moving its national headquarters to Washington -- has long been based.

Today's search is an outgrowth of those subpoenas, which stemmed from an investigation by Caldwell's office into the embezellement of ACORN funds by Dale Rathke, a brother of the organization's founder, Wade Rathke, Herring said.

An ACORN official, speaking on background, said he believed the raid was ordered because of reports that workers for the organization loyal to Beth Butler, the recently fired head of ACORN's Louisiana branch, had been taking computer data and other items out of the office.

Obama Awards Medal of Honor To Indian Chief

Is there anybody with at least two functioning brain cells who believes that the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is anything more then a TelePrompter-reading buffoon?

Yesterday Barry O came out for a short press briefing after meeting with members of various tribes from the Indian nation. In the run-up to his comments on the shooting at Ft. Hood he had to give a shout out to some in attendance and then apparently bestowed the Congressional Medal of Honor upon Joe Medicine Crow.



Don't get me wrong, Joe did some pretty amazing things during World War II, even earning the title of War Chief from his tribe, but don't you think 50-something years is a long time to wait for a MOH?

Joe earned the Medal of Freedom and a Congressional Gold Medal, but no, he never earned the Medal of Honor.

A lot of attention was paid to the fact that he went on for two minutes before getting to the situation at Ft. Hood, but without his TelePrompter he managed to even screw that up.

And this guy is making decisions for the rest of us?

Fort Hood Heroine

God only knows how bad the carnage would have been yesterday at Ft Hood if not for the actions of police Sgt Kim Munley. She was the police officer who charged into the building, confronted the Muslim killer and delivered 4 shots on target to take him down and receiving a gun shot wound herself.

[General]Cone said Munley's aggressive response training taught her that "if you act aggressively to take out a shooter you will have less fatalities."

Reports say she should recover and I wish to send along my well wishes and gratitude for her actions.

Not all heroes are 6'5" Arnold Swartzenegger clones.

UPDATE: Apparently this is not the first time that Officer Munley has been at the right place at the right time.

While Appler was talking to the driver of the vehicle, a third man approached the detective and interjected himself into the discussion. Appler said he asked the third man to leave, when he didn’t, the detective tried to arrest him.

A struggle ensued, and the two men eventually rolled down a hill. When they came to a stop, the man was straddling Appler, reaching for the handgun holstered on the detective’s belt.

Suddenly, Munley appeared, leaped onto the man’s back, yanked him off of Appler and forced him into handcuffs.

At that point, Appler said, he heard the theme to Mighty Mouse playing over in his head: “Here I come to save the day.”

From that time forward, Appler called Munley: “Mighty Mouse.”

This happened when she was an officer in Wrightsville Beach, NC.

Classy: White House Thugs Now Threatening Democrat Strategists Who Appear on Fox

The Obama Thug Machine is officially out of control.

At least one Democratic political strategist has gotten a blunt warning from the White House to never appear on Fox News Channel, an outlet that presidential aides have depicted as not so much a news-gathering operation as a political opponent bent on damaging the Obama administration.

Political consultants are a staple of cable television talk shows, analyzing current events based on their own experiences working on campaigns or in government.

One Democratic strategist said that shortly after an appearance on Fox he got a phone call from a White House official telling him not to be a guest on the show again. The call had an intimidating tone, he said.

The message was, "We better not see you on again,'' said the strategist, who spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to run afoul of the White House. An implicit suggestion, he said, was that "clients might stop using you if you continue.''

In urging Democratic consultants to spurn Fox, White House officials might be trying to isolate the network and make it appear more partisan.

Welcome to Obama's America, where freely speaking your mind is now forbidden and where you're livelihood will be threatened if you don't fall in line.

But Patrick Caddell, a Fox News contributor and a former pollster for Democratic President Jimmy Carter, said he has spoken to Democratic consultants who have been told by the White House to avoid appearances on Fox. He declined to give their names.

Caddell said he had not gotten that message himself from the White House. "They know better than to tell me anything like that,'' he said.

Caddell added: "I have heard that they've done that to others in not too subtle ways. I find it appalling. When the White House gets in the business of suppressing dissent and comment, particularly from its own party, it hurts itself.''

Democrat Party In Total Disarray

For all of the talk about how the Republicans are somehow wandering around the desert doomed to 40 years of exile, it sure seems like it is the Democrats who can't get their act together. That big tent they brag about is turning out to be the center ring of a three-ring circus.

The e-mail warned that any Democratic House member who joins Republicans to filibuster the health care reform measure will "face an enormous backlash from the grassroots."

The group also highlights a letter from Democracy for America, the nation's largest progressive political action founded by former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, which urges Senate Democrats to strip committee chairmanship from "any Democrat who filibusters health care."

So they have gone from smearing Army generals to threatening their own Frankenstein creation.

ACORN has been exposed for what it is, a front organization to bilk millions of taxpayer dollars from the government to line the pockets of their executives while throwing any sort of respect for law and order out the window.

SEIU is recognized as the muscle of the Democrat party, called upon whenever it is required that Obama's message be presented in a more in your face manner.

So we already know Nancy is trying to hide Democrat congress critters from their constituents, and now with the lackeys in the MoveOn gang to back her up we will see soon who the Dems fear more. Whip snapping Nancy with her MoveOn attack dogs or the constituents back home which hold the power to send them packing and off of the government payrolls.

Well, At Least It Was Peer Reviewed

Can't say for sure what criteria the review was subject to, but it sure seems like interesting material.

At Duke University, a school that likes to tout its cutting-edge research, a sex toy study being conducted by a behavioral economist and student health workers has roused criticism.

For much of October, researchers recruited female Duke students to take part in a "sexually explicit" study on Tupperware-style parties in which sex toys, not kitchenware, are the draw.

The ads, which were posted around campus and on a research study Web site, sought female students at least 18 years old to "view sex toys and engage in sexually explicit conversation with other female Duke students."

Participants will be asked to complete online questionnaires about their sexual attitudes and behaviors and visit the lab for a "one-hour party" with seven or eight women. Not only will the students be asked to complete a second questionnaire a couple of months later, they will receive a gift bag and be given the opportunity to purchase items at a significantly reduced rate, according to the ad.

Father Joe Vetter, director of the Duke Catholic Center, was so troubled by the ads that he contacted researchers at Duke student health services and Dan Ariely, the professor of behavioral economics at the Duke business school and senior fellow at the Duke Kenan Institute for Ethics involved in the study.

"My understanding is there is a concern on campus about promiscuity," Vetter said.

In recent years, some university health centers have touted sex toys as alternatives to risky sexual behavior and serial promiscuity. The study, Vetter said, was designed by health care workers to see whether such approaches work.

"I'm concerned about promiscuity also," Vetter said. "And to be honest, I don't have the solution. ... My concern is these students are in this developmental phase, and I don't think it's a good developmental practice to just tell somebody to just sit around and masturbate. I don't think that promotes relationships."
...
Michael Schoenfeld, Duke's vice president for public affairs, said that all kinds of research are important on university campuses and that the sex toy party project went through a peer review process before any students were sought.

"Not all research will make people comfortable," Schoenfeld said.

Beauty Queen in a Bar Fight

I can't believe she gave up her crown over this. If there are any real men on the judges panel of the Miss World she would have been sure to win in landslide. The only thing that could be better is if she actually owned the bar.

The reigning Miss England has relinquished her crown after being accused of a fight in a bar.

Pageant organizers say Rachel Christie has also withdrawn from next month's Miss World competition in South Africa.

They said in a statement that the 21-year-old heptathlete will now focus on clearing her name and training for the 2012 Olympics.

British newspapers reported that Christie got into a dustup with another beauty queen — Miss Manchester Sara Beverley Jones — in a nightclub earlier this week.

I'm sorry, did I say the only way this could get better is if she owned the bar? This is way better. Are you ready for who will be replacing her? You got to love this.

Soldier Kat Hodge is glowing with the thrill of taking second place in the Miss England contest – and nursing a pair of very tender feet.

In her day job, the Lance Corporal is used to wearing sturdy boots, but for the beauty pageant these were replaced by a pair of heels. The 22-year-old clerk with the Adjutant General's Corps is probably the only entrant to Miss England who has a commendation for bravery.

Miss Hodge, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, was only 18 and was serving in Iraq with the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment when she leapt into action after the vehicle she was travelling in overturned.

It gave an Iraqi insurgent time to grab two rifles and threaten the soldiers. Miss Hodge punched him and retrieved the guns.

Eyes of a Killer

Maybe it's just me, but this killer's eyes remind me of someone.

But Let's Not Read Anything Into This: Ft. Hood Suspect Reportedly Shouted `Allahu Akbar'

Maybe when Barack Obama finds his balls he can give the American people a shout out as to why this happened.

Soldiers who witnessed the shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead reported that the gunman shouted "Allahu Akbar!" before opening fire, the base commander said Friday.

Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said officials had not yet confirmed that the suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, made the comment, which is Arabic for "God is great!" before the rampage Thursday, which left 30 people wounded, including the gunman.

An imam from a mosque Hasan regularly attended said Hasan, a lifelong Muslim, was a committed soldier, gave no sign of extremist beliefs and regularly wore his uniform at prayers.

Yes, no sign of extremist beliefs, except for being a Muslim psychopath.

Meanwhile, the terror supporters from CAIR are running scared. Good luck defending this maniac.

"He was making outlandish comments condemning our foreign policy and claimed Muslims had the right to rise up and attack Americans," Col Lee told Fox News.

"He said Muslims should stand up and fight the aggressor and that we should not be in the war in the first place." He said that Maj Hasan said he was "happy" when a US soldier was killed in an attack on a military recruitment centre in Arkansas in June. An American convert to Islam was accused of the shootings.

Col Lee alleged that other officers had told him that Maj Hasan had said "maybe people should strap bombs on themselves and go to Time Square" in New York.

On the upside, at least this psychopath wasn't a wild-eyed conservative teabagger. Then Obama and the left might be spurred into action.

Update: Dan Friedman emails to note the headline in the AP story has changed. Now there's a shocker.

The AP posted this story with this headline and lede on Yahoo! News about two hours ago:

Ft. Hood suspect reportedly shouted `Allahu Akbar' (AP)
AP - Soldiers who witnessed the shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead reported that the gunman shouted "Allahu Akbar!" — an Arabic phrase for "God is great!" — before opening fire, the base commander said Friday.

» Read full article on[Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

But now the same links take you to an entirely different story that changes the subject, and the first story's lede is now para #7:

Neighbor: Fort Hood suspect emptied his apartment

Jeff Carlton And Mike Baker, Associated Press Writers

FORT HOOD , Texas – An Army psychiatrist suspected of opening fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood cleaned out his apartment in the days before the rampage that left 13 people dead, a neighbor said Friday.
###
[Sure, it's a "rapidly changing story." Yeah, right. Expect more of the same from the "real news organizations" as/if the mass murderer's Muslim faith emerges as a significant motive. df]

Hope, Change and 10.2% Unemployment

Here we go again: Another 190,000 jobs not saved or created. Naturally, according to the "experts" it's more than expected. Let's just consider them new members of the funemployed.

U.S. employers cut a deeper-than-expected 190,000 jobs in October, government data showed on Friday, driving the unemployment rate to 10.2 percent, the highest in 26-1/2 years.

The Labor Department said the unemployment rate was the highest since April 1983 and October's non-farm payrolls loss was the smallest since August last year. It revised job losses for August and September to show 91,000 fewer jobs lost than previously reported.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected payrolls to drop by 175,000 and the jobless rate to edge up to 9.9 percent from 9.8 percent in September.

Chuck Devore Welcomes Carly Fiorina To The Senate Race

Ms Fiorina announced her entry into the race for the senate seat currently held by Barbara Boxer yesterday and in the spirit of the moment Mr Devore, another Republican candidate, already has a video out welcoming her to the contest.

Shut up Mr Gingrich and Steele.

How Low Can The O Go?

The Democrats and their media handmaidens can spin Tuesday's disastrous defeats as much as they want, but you know things are bad for Obama when he's getting dissed by David Dinkins, easily the worst Mayor in the history of New York City. When an incompetent, feckless, pusillanimous hack like Dinkins is questioning your street cred, it's time for some introspection.

The city’s first African-American mayor blasted the country's first black president for leaving Bill Thompson in the dust in the mayor’s race this year.

“The president should’ve done more. He found time to go to Virginia, he found time to go to New Jersey and he should’ve been here,” former Mayor David Dinkins, who was in office from 1990 through 1993.

He was referring to Obama’s stumping with New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, who lost to Republican Chris Christie this week, and Virginia Democrat Creigh Deeds, who lost the gubernatorial race to GOP candidate Bob McDonnell.

By comparison, the country’s first black president gave the most lukewarm of endorsements to Thompson, who lost to Mayor Bloomberg by a mere 5 points on Tuesday.

First, Obama’s spokesman told the press on a Friday afternoon that he would support Thompson, who sought to be the city’s second black mayor, because Thompson and he are both are both Democrats.

The spokesman went on to praise Bloomberg.

Obama then gave Thompson a shout-out when he was in the city last month, saying, “Our great city comptroller, our candidate for mayor, my friend Billy Thompson is in the house.”

He gave similar shout-outs to the Democratic candidates for public advocate and comptroller.

The president never campaigned with Thompson, nor did he host any fundraisers for him.

Maybe the white part of Obama hates black people or something. Somohow this must be racist. Perhaps we need the renowned racial healer Al Sharpton to weigh in on this.

As if Dinkins questioning Obama's credibility wasn't bad enough enough, now even the hapless Governor of New York is getting in on the act.

Paterson, whose popularity currently hovers in the 20 percent range, was seriously wounded when Obama let it be known he didn't want Paterson to run because Republicans like Rudy Giuliani consistently beat him in the polls. But Obama's recent lack of success in backing local candidates, including New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, has empowered Paterson.

"The President went to New Jersey five times for Corzine and wasn't able to turn that around, so I think here in New York, New Yorkers know everything is local," said Lynch.

But that's not all Paterson is doing. He's bringing on board campaign powerhouse Harold Ickes, who was former President Bill Clinton's Deputy Chief of Staff.

Aftermath

I went to bed last night thinking that the killer who perpetrated a wanton act of murder at Ft Hood was dead, only to wake up today and hear he was still alive.

Whoosh! That is the sound of any benefit of a doubt about the existence in the myth of the moderate Muslim exists being blown away. They are quite simply the enemy within our midst.

Here is a JAG lawyer that gets it right.

Dr Phil we all know, Shosanna Johnson for those that don't recall is a soldier who was taken prisoner along with Jessica Lynch. They both want to poo - poo the Islamic connection. Welcome to the 9-10 mindset and ya'll can just go back to sleep.

People have asked how such a thing could be carried out on an military installation and the answer is the same way it could be carried out where you work. Contrary to popular belief soldiers do not walk around with loaded weapons all the time, in fact it may surprise some of you to learn that it is probably actually harder to carry a weapon on post then it is for some sections of this country to carry a gun wherever they go. The military relies on everybody obeying the rules and regulations and when they don't there are people in authority who will ensure the rules are enforced like the MP's.

This murderer took advantage of that knowledge, and in fact the wounds he suffered came at the hands of a civilian law enforcement officer.

I waited to write about this until the dust had sort of settled and the facts could become known. You are going to be inundated with endless stories today trying to dissect what it was that could have caused this, when the answer is right in front of your face. It's the religion stupid. I can already hear the stories that will come out trying to portray this guy in some sort of sympathetic light. He deserves as much sympathy as those who carried out the attacks on 9/11 or Timothy McVeigh. May his trial be swift and justice swifter.

13 are dead and scores wounded, all at the hands of a Muslim and that is the bottom line.

For more on this story by a group of guys who never hold back visit here.

ElBaradei: 'Nothing To Be Worried About'

The UN's Islamic Atomic Energy Administration head assures us that there is nothing to worry about in regards to that newly reported nuclear facility that was revealed earlier this year. In fact, he makes it sound like some sort of super sized storage unit, all for peaceful purposes don't you know.

ElBaradei was quoted in a New York Times interview as saying his inspectors' initial findings at the fortified site beneath a desert mountain near the Shi'ite holy city of Qom were "nothing to be worried about."

"The idea was to use it as a bunker under the mountain to protect things," ElBaradei, alluding to Tehran's references to the site as a fallback for its nuclear program in case its larger Natanz enrichment plant were bombed by a foe like Israel.

"It's a hole in a mountain," he said.

Since it is apparent that the UN is wholly owned by the Islamic countries, why should we believe ElBaradei when he is trying to downplay the significance of this site?

At some point the Arab neighbors of Iran are going to get nervous enough that they finally give Israel the go ahead. They know better then to turn to the US, with our Procrastinator in Chief, mushroom clouds will be all over the Middle East before Barry O could tear himself away from the golf course to acknowledge the matter.

While we are trying to make nice with Hamas and Hezbollah could somebody school them on what happens in regards to nuclear fallout should the mad mullahs manage to launch a nuke into Israel? Of course it would put an end to this whole two-state solution with Israel and the PLO.

'It Was Totally Surreal'

It's not as if New York Yankees Manager Joe Girardi didn't do enough last night in helping lead his team to their 27th World Series title. Check out what happened to him after he left Yankee Stadium.

On his way home from winning the World Series, Yankees Manager Joe Girardi stopped to help a woman who had lost control of her car on the Cross County Parkway and crashed into a wall.

"The guy wins the World Series, what does he do? He stops to help," said Westchester County police officer Kathleen Cristiano, who was among the first to arrive at the accident scene. "It was totally surreal."

The driver was stunned by the accident, but otherwise uninjured, police said.

The crash happened at 2:25 a.m. today on the eastbound lanes along a long blind curve where the Cross County meets the Hutchinson River Parkway prior to the New Rochelle Road exit, police said.

Police were in the area conducting a driving while intoxicated checkpoint on the parkway. In fact, about 15 minutes earlier, Girardi had passed through a driving while intoxicated checkpoint on the parkway. Cristiano, who was working the checkpoint, congratulated him on his first win as a manager and waved him through. He hadn't been the only Yankees member to pass by the checkpoint. Pitcher Andy Pettitte also passed through earlier.

"He came through with a smile," Cristiano said.

Cristiano, a self-described huge Yankees fan, said she hadn't expect to see either one of them again. But then a 911 call came through about a car accident a short distance away, and so officers suspended the checkpoint and responded to the crash. As she came upon the accident scene, in an area where the parkway's two lanes turn into three and cars speed by the curve that takes them to the Hutchinson Parkway, Cristiano spotted Girardi.

"He was jumping up and down, trying to flag me down," she said. "You don't expect him standing by a car accident trying to help."

Cristiano said by the time she arrived, the driver, Marie Henry, 27, of Stratford, Conn., was able to get out of the crashed vehicle and declined to be taken to the hospital.

Girardi, who was dressed in a casual T-shirt and jeans, then told them he "had to get going."

Cristiano and Henry both thanked him and watched as he ran across traffic again to reach his car.

"The driver didn't know it was him until after I told her," Cristiano said.

Democrat Donor Charged With Insider Trading, Has Suspected Terror Ties

Naturally, you have to play Name That Party since this New York Times report makes no effort to look into who one Raj Rajaratnam likes to generously donate money to.

Federal prosecutors charged 14 hedge fund employees, lawyers and other investors with trading on insider information on Thursday, in a series of criminal complaints that all appear to be connected to charges already filed against the hedge fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam.

The broadest of the complaints names seven defendants, including Arthur J. Cutillo, a lawyer at the prestigious firm of Ropes & Gray, who is accused of offering tips on impending takeovers that the firm worked on. The tips were then passed among a group of lawyers and traders who, in the hopes of avoiding detection, used prepaid cellphones, referred to stocks by fake names and met in cars. Some members of the ring were paid off in cash, according to the complaint.

The two men identified as leaders of the group, Zvi Goffer and Craig Drimal, are former employees of the Galleon Group, Mr. Rajaratnam’s hedge fund company. F.B.I. agents trailed members of the ring for more than two years, according to the complaint.

Mr. Rajaratnam, who was arrested last month and charged with trading on inside information, is now returning money to investors and winding Galleon down.

As to who Rajaratnam donated to see if some of these names look familiar. Hey, there's Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Charles Schumer and Robert Menendez.

How cozy. As if Clinton didn't have her own issues with Norman Hsu and Schumer getting all that dirty Bernie Madoff money. But it seems Rajaratnam was really overcome by Hope and Change last August, forking over $30,800 himself. A nice donation to the DSCC of $26,700 in 2006 when Schumer ran it as well.

OK, so here we have a man throwing all sorts of money to Democrats, yet this isn't even noted by the Times.

The FBI arrested and indicted Sri Lanka born U.S. hedge fund magnate Raj Rajaratnam, according to the details disclosed by the ABC news network, has given more than US $3.5 million to the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) whose assets were frozen by the U.S. Treasury Department in November 2007 because of its alleged ties to Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers.

Rajaratnam is the single largest known U.S. contributor to a charity linked to the Tamil Tiger terror group in Sri Lanka, according to the ABCNews.com.

ABC also notes that the TRO fund coordinator Ranjithan's home was raided by the FBI in 2006 because of his ties to TRO.

Raj Rajaratnam is also known as a big donor to the Democratic Party and to Obama campaign last year.

It turns out arrested hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam -- charged in a $20 million insider trading case -- has given big to the party in power.

Here's an AP account noting he's an obvious flight risk. Ties to terrorists and Democrat mentioned?

Of course not, silly.

Just wondering: You suppose if a major GOP contributor with ties to a terrorist organization was charged with insider trading that his ties would be mentioned in the news accounts?

He you have the NY Times and Associated Press, the Obama Approved Media with theirlayers of editors and fact checkers and army of reporters, manageing to avoid a potential blockbuster story that we can unearth in 10 minutes.

It's not bias. It's intentional omission of facts. Why? Becasue it would damage their bosses, the Democrats.

26,000 Tons Of Hurt

The Navy's latest combat assault ship, the USS New York, is in New York City this week for it's commissioning on Saturday and the crew from Fox and Friends spent a very chilly morning out on the ship this morning giving us an overview of the ship and it's capabilities.

In summary it is a 26,000 ton ship with 7 1/2 tons of steel built into the bow that came from the World Trade Center. The ship was constructed in a shipyard in New Orleans, and the construction was interrupted by hurricane Katrina. It has a crew of 400 Navy personnel and can carry about 800 Marines anywhere in the world to deliver them to the fight. It has the capability to carry the latest Osprey aircraft as well as helicopters along with all the equipment the Marines would need to fight with, up to and including tanks.

In other words if this bad ass shows up in your neighborhood, I hope you have been good or else the Marines on board will be sure to punish the naughty.



For more videos from this morning's show go here.

A Little Something for Yankee Haters

Enjoy. From the Yankee fan perspective, we can now breath a huge sigh of relief and start putting that nightmare of 2004 behind us.

Derek Jeter now has one for the thumb.

Here A Nazi, There A Nazi

Czech extremists planned attacks on power plants, kidnaps

The Czech extremist organisation White Justice (WJ) was preparing terrorist attacks on power plants and unit substations and kidnappings of police and "Jews in high posts," daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes today, referring to a secret neo-Nazi web.

It writes that it also drew information from testimonies by two founding members of White Justice, Filip Stransky and Lukas Sedlacek.

Organisation members were taught to destroy property, blast cars and fight with and without arms at "fight camps," MfD writes, adding that training and communication was strictly secret.

MfD writes that Stransky was probably the head of the whole organisation, or at least some members consider him to be the chief though he himself denies it.

White Justice organised four fight camps at which professional soldier Sedlacek taught the interested persons to attack concrete persons and buildings, MfD writes.

It says the group also launched a project called "red watch" within which the neo-Nazis wanted to monitor and intimidate "ideological enemies," particularly anarchists and police.

The police found the plans of the hydro-electric power plant in Zelezny Brod, north Bohemia, in the flat of one of the group founders, MfD writes.

"I am one of the founders of the organisation. Filip Stransky and a person called Jany founded it with me," Sedlacek said in police questioning, MfD writes adding it has his testimony at its disposal.

Sedlacek confessed to having trained about 30 people in the camps. He taught them hand-to-hand combat, both armed and unarmed, and attacking animate as well as inanimate targets. He also trained them to blast cars and destroy property, MfD writes.

Stransky claims that he administera web ervers of the White Justice group. He also received instructions via the Internet, but he says he does not know the authors, MfD writes.

Anonymity was a condition both in training and in Internet communication. All participants used nicknames, the paper writes.

"We knew ourselves only in small groups. If one of us were exposed, this would not threaten the rest of the organisation," MfD quotes Stransky as saying.

Sedlacek also testified to having known practically no individual members. For the sake of secrecy they communicated only electronically via foreign and mostly encoded servers. One of them is in the United States and another in Israel, MfD writes.

"The WJ organisation is here to do the dirty work. We know now who is a Jew and who is his lackey. It is unfeasible to remove the top-placed Jew within a week, but it is feasible to gradually rise along the pyramid of those in power up to the very peak," a person nicknamed "Redakce" (editorial office) said on a secret web, MfD writes.

Stransky admitted in an interview with MfD that he used to enter the web just under this name.

The police arrested a part of the extremist group for propagation of Nazism two weeks ago.

"We were monitoring the group on suspicion of preparation of terrorist attacks," Robert Slachta, director of the police Squad for Uncovering Organised crime (UOOZ) said then.

Community organizer David Duke was unavailable for comment.

Via ČeskéNoviny

H/T Mishi & Pito

Underexposed First Lady to Appear on Reality Show

There's just no escaping these people. The left wonders where Obama's popularity has gone? Here's a one-word suggestion: Overexposure. Could these two please just get out of our faces for five minutes?

Michelle Obama is to be the first presidential wife to appear on a reality TV series.

The First Lady will make a guest appearance on 'Iron Chef America' which features British cook Nigella Lawson as a judge.

The episode of the popular series, which pits well-known chefs against each others, has been filmed at the White House and will be aired in the New Year.

Many of the ingredients for the meals prepared in the show were chosen from the recently planted White House vegetable garden.

Ugh. Enough with this vegetable garden. Is she the first woman on the planet to plant vegetables?

Enough already.

Hot Air links. Thanks!

Time For Another Hitler In The Bunker Video

Here is your obligatory Hitler in the bunker video for Tuesday's elections.

Unfunny NY Times Hack Puts on Brave Face

Never let it be said the folks at the New York Times have their finger on the pulse of the American electorate. Instead of honestly assessing the outcome of the elections Tuesday night, we get some really lame snark from a third-rate columnist who obviously doesn't get out enough.

There seems to be a semiconsensus across the land that the myriad decisions voters made around the country this week all added up to a terrible blow to the White House. If that’s the way we’re going to go, I don’t think it’s fair to dump all the blame on gubernatorial contests in New Jersey and Virginia.

Although there is no way to deny that New Jersey and Virginia were terrible, horrible, disastrous, cataclysmic blows to Obama’s prestige. No wonder the White House said he was not watching the results come in. How could the man have gotten any sleep after he realized that his lukewarm support of an inept candidate whose most notable claim to fame was experience in hog castration was not enough to ensure a Democratic victory in Virginia?

New Jersey was even worse. The defeat of Gov. Jon Corzine made it clear that the young and minority voters who turned out for Obama will not necessarily show up at the polls in order to re-elect an uncharismatic former Wall Street big shot who failed to deliver on his most important campaign promises while serving as the public face of a state party that specializes in getting indicted.

They would not rally around Corzine even when the president asked them! Really, what good are coattails if they can’t drag an unlovable guy from a deeply corrupt party into a second term?

Curious, but how much coverage did the Times pay to the "deeply corrupt" Democrats in the lead-up to the New Jersey election? And if the New Jersey Democrats are so corrupt and Corzine so unlovable, why did the Times endorse him?

A New York Times poll completed last week captured the way New Jersey voters have been grumbling about all their choices for governor. But Jon Corzine, who is slightly ahead among likely voters, is a decent man with a laudable set of goals for his state. We endorse him for re-election in New Jersey on Nov. 3.

So they endorse "an uncharismatic former Wall Street big shot who failed to deliver on his most important campaign promises" and when their guy loses we're supposed to pretend it didn't mean anything. Let's pretend that 20% swing for the Republican at the top of the ticket from 2008 to 2009 means nothing.

Just keep believing that.