Conservatives Have Earned A Drink This New Year's...

...because the tide has turned in the battle of ideas, for the battle of the hearts and minds of Americans, and we are winning.

On this same date exactly one year ago, I wrote the following:

Some have called 2009 an "Annus horribilis"; I beg to differ. Yes, liberal totalitarianism has taken hold in America, much as many on the right had predicted, with the rise of this nation's first charismatic ideologue. But we need this battle. The arguments against liberalism were lost, defeated by a hateful opposition to George W. Bush and a mainstream media who pounded us every day with leftist propaganda.

What we have gotten, and what we have needed to see firsthand, is how destructive liberalism is in practice. Only with having experienced it, can we be sure of its corrupt and poisonous nature. And thus to save our nation, we must rise up and defeat the Left in a battle that will be virtually unprecedented in American history.

And we have. We have taken to the streets, we have run the bad guys out of Washington with the proverbial pitchfoks and torches, and if we have not-reshaped the media, we have exposed its leftist bias clearly enough that they have been widely discredited, and even their most severe pronouncements are taken with a grain of salt (sorry, Bloomie!). As a side effect of this new view of the mainstream media, is seems as if most of what the president says is also now taken with a healthy dose of skepticism as well. Discrediting the administration's mouthpieces resulted in the discrediting of the administration itself. Unexpected but welcome.

Winning a few early battles does not guarantee winning the war; the heavy lifting may well be ahead of us as the new Congress faces the temptation of big government's incessant appetite for money and power. We are merely soldiers on an unofficial holiday truce, our guns for a moment slug onto our backs, safeties engaged. We sip warming drinks while toasting our good fortune, all while knowing that across the tree-line, the darkness still gathers, and will come blowing out to fight again as soon as the sun rises on a new year.

The struggle continues into 2011, but to date we have done well. But we must press on to ensure that are victories are permanent, and not just the fancies of a season.

I too will continue, for what minimal bit I add to the effort, out of my intellectual version of a wooden roadside shack on the dusty outskirts of the vast internet highway....

But for those who have stopped by in 2010, I offer you many thanks. This year has been this blog's best year ever in terms of links, readership, page views, and all that stuff. Month by month we have been climbing to new heights - if I were to graph it, a global warmist would turn green with envy at the never-ending "spike"...

I appreciate your readership. I appreciate your comments, for good or for ill. I am humbled by your linkage.

And I wish each and every one of you the very happiest and healthiest of New Years. May the year 2011 see your fondest dreams fulfilled. And may we work together to see that our nation - the best in the world at making dreams come to fruition - gets back on track, and returns to being once again healthy, wealthy, and wise...

I will be here to fight for that end. I hope some of you will still be too.

Happy New Year!

2011: Can We Finally Agree That Global Warming Is A Crock Of Sh*t?

I've given up praying for world peace; I'm reduced to praying that in 2011 we can all drop our ideological pretenses and freely admit the data proves that global warming simply does not exist.

Once we remove this imaginary bogeyman from around our necks and this wasteful discussion from our national discourse, perhaps we can move forward and actually devote time to some of the real-life problems (like world peace!) that are plaguing us on a daily basis....

Seriously. It's time to move on. FOX News gives us 41 years of fear-fueled, dire, "scientific" predictions of global warming that - for all of the "credentials" of the issuing parties - turned out to be laughably false. A sampler:

Within a few years "children just aren't going to know what snow is." Snowfall will be "a very rare and exciting event." Dr. David Viner, senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, interviewed by the UK Independent, March 20, 2000.

"Arctic specialist Bernt Balchen says a general warming trend over the North Pole is melting the polar ice cap and may produce an ice-free Arctic Ocean by the year 2000." Christian Science Monitor, June 8, 1972.

"Using computer models, researchers concluded that global warming would raise average annual temperatures nationwide two degrees by 2010." Associated Press, May 15, 1989.

"In ten years all important animal life in the sea will be extinct. Large areas of coastline will have to be evacuated because of the stench of dead fish." Ehrlich, speech during Earth Day, 1970

Well, there's a stench in the air, but it ain't dead fish..and it's long past time to spray some serious moral disinfectant on these lying bastards, and the media who propagate these falsehoods.

Moving more up-to-date, over at Watts Up With That? we get a map of all the weather records set this week...for cold weather and snow:



Click here for a more interactive experience...

Perhaps the media did get one thing right in 1974, as Time magazine stumbled upon an inconvenient truth:

As they review the bizarre and unpredictable weather pattern of the past several years, a growing number of scientists are beginning to suspect that many seemingly contradictory meteorological fluctuations are actually part of a global climatic upheaval. However widely the weather varies from place to place and time to time, when meteorologists take an average of temperatures around the globe they find that the atmosphere has been growing gradually cooler for the past three decades. The trend shows no indication of reversing. Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age.

Can't have that, though, because "global warming" lends itself to every liberal solution in search of a problem - income redistribution, war against cars, forced urbanization, and greater government regulatory control over big business. That why government spends so much taxpayer money to fund research that will give them the answers they need to tighten their grip on power.

And that's why the scientists and politicians work so hard to "hide the decline"....

For 2011, let's expose this false religion, laugh at ourselves and the Gore-esque false prophets, and dump the politicos who used this scam for their own benefit...

Is The Consumer "Back"? Ah...No.

Pop economist John Crudele of the New York Post makes a mockery over media-fueled claims that a surge in consumer spending this holiday season shows the economy is on its way back on track:

MasterCard Advisors said retail sales soared 5.5 percent this holiday season, excluding car sales. Clueless journalists gushed that "the consumer is back." Even one careful analyst on the economy cheered in his newsletter that this was the largest increase in five years amid an "orgy of consumerism."

Seriously, does anyone really think consumers went crazy this Christmas? With unemployment at 9.8 percent?

It really doesn't make sense. So I asked MasterCard Advisors whether its numbers excluded gasoline sales, which are only increasing because of an unhealthy spike in prices.

Well, no, said MasterCard, we include all retail purchases, including gasoline and food. Just like the government's Department of Commerce does!

So how much has the price of gas risen?

The Energy Department says gas prices went from a nationwide average of $2.91 a gallon in mid-November to $3.05 a gallon around Christmas time.

That's a 4.8-percent increase and indicates that a lot of this holiday's spending wasn't for the purpose of joyful gift- giving but rather went toward filling Luke's pickup.

Add in the rise in food prices - the September 2010 year-to-year increase was 1.4% and showing no signs of abating - and it doesn't seem as if the consumer is back at all. Instead, the consumer is barely treading water, forced to spend more money for basic survival staples, and thus necessitating him/her to cut back on his actual physical holiday spending - gifts and such, you know, the purchase of which actually helps create jobs - or to go even further into debt to pay for the same amount of gifts he/she bought last year.

Both options are economic poison. So the media (and the government) instead take a third tack, warping the data to make it seem that the economy is recovering, when in reality the facts point to a very different conclusion.

Unless the government now feels the fact we can even afford to pay for drastic price increases in basic necessities is a cause for celebration. Talk about defining success down...

Obama To Sue You For NOT Hiring A Criminal?

Are these two stories connected? Oh, you betcha:

Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie was surprised to hear the president's voice on the phone. Barack Obama had two things to discuss with Lurie: the redemption of Michael Vick and the alternative-energy plans Lurie unveiled this fall for Lincoln Financial Field. I talked about the Vick story on NBC last night.

"The president wanted to talk about two things, but the first was Michael,'' Lurie told me. "He said, 'So many people who serve time never get a fair second chance. He was ... passionate about it. He said it's never a level playing field for prisoners when they get out of jail. And he was happy that we did something on such a national stage that showed our faith in giving someone a second chance after such a major downfall.''

Guess Vick must be on Obama's White House Fantasy Football team; otherwise, why would The Cool One become so "passionate"?

Unless having companies hire criminals is part of his agenda...or, better said, perhaps forcing private companies to hire criminals is part of his agenda:

The federal agency that enforces workplace anti-discrimination laws is warning employers they could be sued if they refuse to hire blacks or Latinos because of a bad credit history or a criminal record.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last week sued Kaplan Higher Education Corp., accusing the company of using “a selection criterion for hiring and discharge — namely, credit history information — that has had a significant disparate impact on black job applicants.”

The lawsuit is part of a stepped-up but controversial effort to eliminate “arbitrary barriers” to employment for minorities by the EEOC, which is governed by five commissioners, three appointed by President Obama.

Hmmm...is refusing to hire a convicted felon really that arbitrary? Will "Justice" now force people to hire criminals in order to prove they are not racist? If a company hires a honest minority applicant over a black ex-con, is that company still liable for creating "disparate impact" ? (answer: yes, based on the Kaplan lawsuit, as Kaplan has plenty of minority instructors).

If you are a honest, hard-working, fully credentialed, unemployed American applying for a job, well...Obama has now pushed a minority criminal ahead of you on line, because they are...a minority criminal, and you are not.

"Fairness", Obama-style. And they wonder why businesses refuse to hire, and that damn unemployment rate remains so stubbornly high, no matter what they try to force the private sector to do...

Obama Using Religious Rhetoric To Bolster Support For Socialism

Ah, I can almost see it....a perpetually frustrated Obama, surrounded by sycophants (aka "advisers"), wanting to know why the American people refuse to give him the adulation and support he so richly deserves for the myriad of government-created, taxpayer-funded social programs his administration has bestowed upon them.

Yes, he knows they're stupid - shoot, the New York Times tells him that every day - but what does he have to do to get through to them?

Talk to them in their own language? a tepid admirer suggests - if you can't shoot it out with a rifle in Morse Code, maybe you can find the right words in the Bible. Then you can tell them their God commands them to admire you and support your agenda!

Which brings us to:

President Obama’s trip to church Sunday followed a steady rebirth over the past three months in public expressions of his Christianity.

Obama has publicly mentioned his “Christian faith” more times in the past three months than he has over the past year. He has more frequently cited passages of the Bible, including repeated references to the spirit of Genesis 4:9 — “I am my brother’s keeper; I am my sister’s keeper” — which was a mainstay of Obama’s 2010 campaign stump speech. And he’s taken his family to church twice, a shift for a president who has preferred to worship privately since the end of the 2008 campaign.

Obama has used the reference, which was a regular feature of his on the 2008 campaign trail, in two dozen speeches since September. Before then, he’d used it just four times as president. References to his “Christian faith” also have appeared more times in Obama’s speeches since September than they did before.

There we go. You call yourself a religious man? God says you are your brother's keeper, so fork over your dough, give up your space on line to someone less worthy, and expect a two week wait for a doctor's appointment. Don't like it? Well (insert sneer here), I guess you're just not that religious after all, are you? Actually - you are not even as religious as I, Barack Obama! Sorry, sir (or ma'am) - better luck in the next world...

Nice ploy. But folks don't like to be lectured by others on how to best put their faith into practice. One might see it as...elitist, condescending, and hypocritical. Especially when one takes quite a huge book of religion and philosophy and pulls from it only the ten words - which are then repeated ad naseum - that can be twisted to support their own personal crusade. One might say...that's not very Christian.

Expect this "outreach" to fail, much like every other contrived setup Obama's coterie comes up with to make him seem like a regular guy. But don't worry, though - no matter what, it' not Obama's fault, it's ours - at least according to this BU poli-sci professor:

“One of the good things about him and one of the things I think is a problem for him politically is that he’s so intellectual,” Longman said of Obama. “And I think that at some level his approach to religion is as well.”

We just don't get him, and all he does for us....at what point will Obama's supporters stop telling him to quote Jesus, and claim he has supplanted Him as "The Real Deal"?

Taking bets on that...I say the 2012 Democratic convention...

Republicans To Open 112th Congress By Reading The Constitution, NY Times Set To Denounce The Document...

Here's how the 112th Congress will begin (can we say "historic"?):

The Republicans are up to no good. The 112th Congress is coming to Washington DC with the Republicans in the majority, and the Right plans to stir things up. In fact, Republicans are arming for war with the ultimate ammunition, the US Constitution!

That's right - the Radical Republicans plan to open Congress by reading the Constitution on the floor of the House. Newly elected legislators are planning to drag out the source document to remind Congress what guidelines should be adhered to when imposing legislation on the American people.

Those backing the plan said the goal is to "underscore the limited-government rules the Founders imposed on Congress - and to try to bring some of those principles back into everyday legislating." Does that mean revisionist Democrats are going to have to actually listen, or will the Republicans allow conscientious objection?

The rabble rouser extremist who came up with the idea, Robert W. Goodlatte (R-Va), said the proposal "stems from the debate that we've had for the last two years about things like the exercise of authority in a whole host of different areas" from the EPA to health care to cap and trade.

Godlatte said: "This Congress has been very aggressive in expanding the power of the federal government, and there's been a big backlash to that."

No offense to Congressman Goodlatte, but adherence to the letter of the law isn't exactly the Left's strong suit. Even if Democrats know what the Constitution says, the copy they prefer is the "not deeply flawed" edition. Liberals cling to a newfangled "living-breathing" Constitution, marked up and made up as they go along...

Need proof of that statement? Here's a New York Times editorial on the "repeal amendment", where they heap disdain upon the document itself by denying it's very reason for being:

...the repeal amendment...proposal is sweeping, expressing with bold simplicity the view of the Tea Party and others that the federal government’s influence is far too broad. It would give state legislatures the power to veto any federal law or regulation if two-thirds of the legislatures approved.

The chances of the proposal becoming the Constitution’s 28th Amendment are exceedingly low. But it helps explain further the anger-fueled, myth-based politics of the populist new right....

These flaws make the proposed amendment self-defeating, but they are far less significant than the mistaken vision of federalism on which it rests. Its foundation is that the United States defined in the Constitution are a set of decentralized sovereignties where personal responsibility, private property and a laissez-faire economy should reign. In this vision, the federal government is an intrusive parent.

But as any student who's done even the most elementary study into the basis of the constitutions knows, the document was laid out in a way to promote the three ethos the Times lists and derides above. That is not a mistaken vision, it is historical fact, as the founders were understandably concerned about the powers of an overeager executive branch.

The Times has created an alternate history that they desperately want to believe:

In past economic crises, populist fervor has been for expanding the power of the national government to address America’s pressing needs. Pleas for making good the nation’s commitment to equality and welfare have been as loud as those for liberty.

Really? Besides a brief spurt in the 1930's, when did the people ever demand that their liberties be exchanged for material comfort, or even claim that liberties should be sacrificed in the name of "equality"?

Methinks the Times board is simply not smart enough to actually create an alternative history of the United States. I just think they are confused, and are mixing up the American revolution with the Russian revolution, or the Sandinistas, or Che Guevara's crusade against capitalism.

Maybe, watching the 112th Congress open up with a reading of the Constitution, the editorial board of the Times will awaken and remember what nation they live in. or maybe it will drive them deeper into psychosis.

Either way, I'm looking forward to the editorial denouncing the Constitution (as read by Republicans) the day after...

"Most Productive Congress Ever"? Define "Productive"...

That's the phrase the media's been using to describe the 111th Congress; in a futile attempt to knock some sense into us plebes, maybe make us understand just how much the kindhearted Democratic party tried to do for us before we so cruelly ejected them like the spiteful children we so obviously are...

Let's define productive, shall we?

- producing much: producing something abundantly and efficiently
- worthwhile: producing satisfactory or useful results
- producing something: producing or able to produce something

Now ask yourself: Does this fit the definition of productive?

The federal government has accumulated more new debt--$3.22 trillion ($3,220,103,625,307.29)—during the tenure of the 111th Congress than it did during the first 100 Congresses combined, according to official debt figures published by the U.S. Treasury.

That equals $10,429.64 in new debt for each and every one of the 308,745,538 people counted in the United States by the 2010 Census.

The total national debt of $13,858,529,371,601.09 (or $13.859 trillion), as recorded by the U.S. Treasury at the close of business on Dec. 22, now equals $44,886.57 for every man, woman and child in the United States.

Is creating debt a productive act? Short answer: no. The creation of a negative is not a productive act, it is the anthesis of one. Actually, we can fairly ask if the creation of debt is the definition of "unproductive"....

Hmmm:

Unproductive
- not producing goods and services with exchange value

What services have we received of value? Not the stimulus, or health care reform (taking a good system and making it worse is not productive, unless the goal is to destroy the system), or even on foreign policy, where virtually all global situations have gone from bad to worse.

I guess the media's "out clause" here is the second definition of "productive": producing satisfactory results. In the eyes of the MSM, the radical leftist legislation passed by the 111th Congress was "satisfactory" as it was legislation they favored and supported. The results of these policies - a miserable economy, thousands of folks actually losing health insurance - are being ignored, as they would run counter to the "productive" theme. So the media looks strictly at the agenda, and deems it "historic" and of course, "productive".

While we - forced to live with the results from this misguided and subversive Congress - can fairly look at the entirety of the process, from legislation to implementation, and fairly judge the 111th as "the most unproductive Congress ever".

And in doing so, we are being more honest and realistic about the damage done by the 11th than any member of the media could dare ever be...

Juan Williams: Right on Sarah Palin?

Juan Williams, on FOX News, talks about one of the staunchest defenders of his right to free speech:

Fox News contributor Juan Williams said Sunday that Sarah Palin "can't stand on the intellectual stage" with President Obama.

Williams, in his role as an analyst on Fox News Sunday, was breaking down the Republican presidential field, which he saw as weak.

"There's nobody out there, except for Sarah Palin, who can absolutely dominate the stage, and she can't stand on the intellectual stage with Obama," Williams said.

Well, of course she can't. Or better, she shouldn't. It's a comedown for her. She's a former mayor, a former governor, and a political king-maker par excellence, whose policy positions are now finally being adopted - first by the American people, then Congress (after they were fired, true, by aforementioned American people), and now even our president, who has seen her light on taxation at least...

What has Obama's "intellectualism" accomplished? Nothing; his policy prescriptions for the United States are somewhere between flawed and fatal. The American people realized that long before November, Obama - for all of his genius - still cannot wrap his head around his own failures. Every sector of America he touches becomes warped, perverted, or destroyed, every candidate he endorses fails.

He is in fact not an intellectual in any way, shape, or form - he's still a radical activist, a community organizer, playing at intellectualism to bolster his credentials. And the only ones buying it are the media elite, who desperately need his greatness to bolster their own self-worth and give weight to their precious strident liberalism; thus they anoint him both philosopher and king, despite his alarming lack of credentials or accomplishment.

So Williams is right: Sarah Palin should not share an intellectual stage with Barack Obama. He is a mediocrity aping intelligence with Teleprompted sound-bites but with zero ability to back up his arguments once they proceed beyond boilerplate rhetoric. Meanwhile, Palin has been successful in virtually every aspect of her life by staring reality in the face, adjusting to it or forcing it to adjust to her, and then speaking plainly about it, and not dressing it up with meaningless flowery phraseology taken from a child's thesaurus.

It would be an embarrassment for Palin to have to share the stage with the buffoon-in-chief. His closest equal in the Republican party may be Lisa Murkowski, a person who has risen far due to the efforts and favors of others rather than any God-given talents, and whose policy positions are as muddled and clueless as the president's.

Let those two intellectual giants fight it out on William's "intellectual stage". Sarah Palin knows better than to bring herself down to the level they represent...

OK…And this blizzard is being caused by “global warming” how, exactly?

Folks, we just don't see the "B" word 'round these parts of Jersey too much....

Old Bridge, NJ (08857) Weather Right Now

Next 36 Hours

	Tonight	Tomorrow	Tomorrow Night
Snow / Windy	Blizzard	Snow Shower / Wind	Partly Cloudy / Wind
24°F	19°	26°	21°
Feels Like: 8°	Low	High	Low
Past 24-hr: Precip: 0.73 in (est.) Snow: 13.3 in (est.)	Chance of Snow: 100%	Chance of Snow: 50%	Chance of Snow: 10%
Wind: From NNW at 25mph gusting to 33mph	Wind: NNW at 27 mph	Wind: NW at 27 mph	Wind: WNW at 25 mph

Confused on how this jibes with warming theory as propounded by the Left? Then see this piece on our weather from the New York Times, in which your intellectual betters instruct you to close your eyes, close your mind, ignore common sense and everything your gut instinct as a thinking human being is screaming at you, as you are bidden to enter the Church of Global Warning, where all things, no matter how contrary to reality, can be explained by mere worship of the gods of climate change...

Christmas is always a bad day for America's enemies...

It was General Washington who started the tradition of killing our enemies on Christmas Day (as Great Satan's Girlfriend eloquently puts it) by taking the remnants of his ragtag army and going all-in with a late-night crossing of the Delaware river to conduct a (successful) assault on Hessian forces. Which led to a victorious assault on Princeton, which led to...well, you know the rest....

But our enemies don't; no matter how multi-cultural we all assume our be-knighted wanna-be executioners are, they only know of America what their propagandists tell them - that we're weak, lazy, immoral, and controlled by the Jews. So they expect to catch us napping on Christmas, and figure they can perhaps engineer a good slaughter and ruin our holy day.

But for all of our alleged weakness, and allegiance to a higher power, it doesn't mean that we will abdicate the fight on our most revered days. Alas for our enemies, for what they have appeared to have learned firsthand is that Christmas is a day where we very well may fight back the hardest:

While many New Yorkers celebrated Christmas morning by tearing open presents, American soldiers stationed in one of the most dangerous combat zones in Afghanistan awoke to a hail of gunfire from a Taliban attack.

As these dramatic photographs show, one US platoon stationed on the front line in Badel -- a treacherous enclave near the Pakistan border -- spent the day exchanging heavy gunfire with terrorist forces.

As the Taliban creeps under cover of darkness to recover the bodies of their dead, perhaps they will reflect on this fine American tradition of sending our enemies to hell while we celebrate heaven on earth. And perhaps next year at this time, they will be smart enough to lay low, knowing what type of Christmas Day vengeance our brave troops are willing to deliver, wrapped in hollow point, armor-piercing bullets....

"Merry Christmas", From Your Resident Jew!

I like Christmas. A lot.

I grew up in an Italian-Catholic neighborhood, and celebrated Christmas with the families of my friends since I was a little kid. Not "celebrated" in the sense of going to church - it's not my place - but I was always invited over to a friends house to eat, drink, and occasionally exchange a gift. I think Christmas trees are beautiful, I like Christmas specials on TV, and I enjoy getting into the spirit of the season.

And I thank God every day that I live in a nation as open and tolerant as the United States of America - a Christian nation to be sure, but a nation that has been perhaps the most hospitable in the the history of civilization to the Jewish people. May it always keep its (Judeo)Christian nature, and never forget its heritage, from which springs its greatness...

And on that note, here's an email once sent by Ben Stein, standing up as a Jew and an American to do battle against those who would wage war on Christmas:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat....

Merry Christmas!


(somewhat excerpted from this post, but with 25% new material!)

Senator Robert Menendez (D-La Raza): The Santa Claus of Stupid

...because every year, he brings us gifts that make us laugh, make us smile, and makes us shake our heads in wonder and amazement...

Of course, while Santa brings gifts of joy, New Jersey's junior Senator brings gifts of unmitigated stupidity. From Obamacare to tax hikes, from hate speech to racist Tea Party bashing to book signings at La Raza's national headquarters, Menendez is the gift of idiocy that keeps on giving.

And what does Menendez (D-Illegal Immigrants) have for us for Christmas? Why, it's a letter he wrote all by himself to Santy Claus, where, with child-like diction, he express concern that the North Pole might melt from the Heat Miser - aka "climate change".

Really:

December 23, 2010
Dear Santa Claus,

I am writing out of concern, because you may have to move from the North Pole due to the dramatic melting of Arctic sea ice. The Navy's chief oceanographer says that by the summer of 2020 the North Pole may not have summer ice and other scientists project that an ice-free Arctic is possible as soon as 2012!

Scientists overwhelmingly agree that polar ice is melting because of greenhouse gas pollution and I am working hard to reduce these emissions. But there is probably nothing we can do in time to save the North Pole. I am worried about your safety and your ability to deliver billions of Christmas gifts if the ice cap on the North Pole no longer stays frozen all year. What will happen to your house, your workshop, the elves' houses and your reindeer barns?

I want you to know that if you want to relocate to the beautiful state of New Jersey, I would be proud to assist you. But given the climate you are accustomed to, I will understand if you would like to relocate to the South Pole. Just be sure not to move to the Antarctic Peninsula or West Antarctic ice sheet, areas that are also experiencing rapid ice melt.

Please know that I will work to mobilize the U.S. federal government to assist when you relocate. I am sure we can both agree that on a warming planet, we need to do all we can to save Christmas.

Sincerely,
Robert Menendez
U.S. Senator

Menendez reminds me of a certain British climate scientist, now famous for saying that snow would be non-existent in Great Britain by...2010. Fortunately, Menendez is up for re-election in 2012, so we'll get to pass judgment on his scientific predictions in real time.

Someone ought to tell Menendez that Santa ain't moving his workshop to New Jersey, no way, no how no matter how many taxpayer dollars he shovels into his sleigh. What are we, 48th out of 50 states in terms of business-friendly policies? His workshop would be out of business within the year, and the state would have hundreds of unemployed elves on their hands...

It appears as if Menendez (D-MoveOn) is as ignorant about economics as he is about climate science. But it's not surprising to see him writing to Santa Claus about it - after all, aren't liberals counting on him to pay for all of their social welfare projects?

I'll close with James Taranto's observation:

Does global warming exist? It exists as certainly as Santa Claus...

Sexy Santa Babes: Better Than Chestnuts On An Open Fire?

Well, I'm not even sure what that means, exactly. But I do feel that after my second consecutive year of bringing you "Hanukkah Honeys", I ought to leave something under the virtual tree on Christmas Eve as well.

So if it's cold where you are (and the wind is howling out here in Jersey), gather 'round the warming glow of your LCD monitor, and heat yourself up with this collection of Christmas cuties - a multitude of smoking-hot sexy Santas, each ready to deliver the present that you so richly deserve, be you naughty or nice:

And I'm just starting to realize...that maybe Santa's got a little Asian-fusion in there as well:

Hmmm...I think we're gonna make Rule 5 a new Christmas tradtion around here...

An Extremely Regulatory Christmas

What has the administration of the "Comeback Kid" been working on the past few weeks? Maybe working on meeting Republicans and the American people somewhere in the middle. or perhaps adjusting itself to the realities set forth by the 2010 elections?

Nah. That would be so...democratic, in the "small d" sense. What they've been working on - nay, accomplishing - while the media was re-anointing Obama as a godhead arisen from the ashes is nothing less than a complete takeover of the economic engine of the nation via regulatory fiat.

First, the Obama administration has asserted control over the Internet via the uncalled for and unnecessary Net Neutrality bill.

Coming next, on January 2nd, the EPA will release new guidelines that will impose limits on carbon dioxide - you know, the stuff you breathe out of your mouth. Of course, that will destroy the economy, but hey - liberals would rather rule an impoverished nation that be ruled in a wealthy one. What will the results of the EPA's diktat be? Try this:

A study released Dec. 8 by the Brattle Group, an economic consultancy, found that the new EPA rules could force the retirement of older power plants that produce 50,000 to 67,000 megawatts of electricity, or roughly 20 percent of the nation’s coal-fired power plants. As many as 70 million homes could be subject to blackouts, according to American Solutions, an advocacy group for conventional energy. Equipping remaining plants to comply with the mandates would cost $100 billion to $180 billion, the Brattle report warned. Those expenses would be passed along to consumers in the form of higher electric bills.

Look no further than the White House to find the source of this assault on America’s energy supply. The Obama administration’s energy policy is driven by global-warming true believers.

And to complete the Obama administration's Holy Trinity of Power Grabs, the thirsty beast of Obamacare raises its carbuncular head on Christmas Eve eve, and roars with unmistakable hatred at the American people and their capitalistic system:

Not satisfied with the colossal amounts of power that she would acquire under Obamacare if it isn't repealed, Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Kathleen Sebelius has issued a 136-page "rule" that will now give her (and her subordinates) largely unchecked power to pass judgment on the prices of health insurance throughout the United States.

It's staggering that one person would think that she should ultimately get to decide what a product, which Obamacare would soon require all Americans to purchase, should cost. Moreover, the Wall Street Journal writes that Sebelius's "rule" marks "an effort to end-run Congress, which by some miracle declined to give HHS the formal legal authority to explicitly block premium increases, despite a direct appeal from President Obama." Not having been granted that formal power, "Ms. Sebelius is creating by regulatory fiat larger de facto powers to achieve the same end."

...It would also lead to results of even greater importance: the politicizing of health care, the compromising of liberty, and the debilitating consolidation of power in the hands of the unelected few.

I feel like a soldier in a bunker on Christmas, enjoying a few moments of peace while steeling myself for the long and ugly battles that lay ahead....


UPDATE: Professor Jacobson: "Defund the bitch" (OK, that's a paraphrase, not a quotation, but it just sounds so good...)

American Exceptionalism In Action

One of the phrases our oh-so-thoughtful-and-intelligent president must regret more than most of his inane and empty utterances must be this one:

"I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism,"

Obama wittered on further, as is his wont:

Now, the fact that I am very proud of my country and I think that we've got a whole lot to offer the world does not lessen my interest in recognizing the value and wonderful qualities of other countries, or recognizing that we're not always going to be right, or that other people may have good ideas...

Yadda, yadda, yadda....

But he's wrong, and Tony Blankley displays why, in a powerful essay. Simply put: When "other countries" are faced with financial and social crisis, they riot and demand the government do something to help them. In America, when we are beset with turmoil, we rise up and demand that the government had better...back the f*ck off, now:

Most of the country had turned fearful (I know I was scared -- and so were some very experienced New York financiers whom I personally knew.) President Obama started applying the typical remedies: bailouts, nationalizations, trillion-dollar stimulus -- spreading the wing of the state to "protect" the helpless people.

And then the American miracle occurred; not in Washington, but in the hearts and heads of the American people. The polls started to show that the American people wanted Washington to do less, not more. They didn't want to be sheltered under the wing of the state.

The American people feared the permanent loss of liberty more than they feared the temporary loss of their income or property.

The tea parties self-formed without leadership from above. But millions of people who didn't join the tea parties nonetheless endorsed their sentiments and values -- so that by last month, polls showed that the tea parties were more identified with than the Republican Party, which itself had just won the greatest election victory in well over half a century.

No other people in the world would have responded to economic danger by seeking more liberty and less government protection.

No other people would have thought to themselves, "If I have to suffer economically in order not to steal from my grandchildren, so be it."

We know this is not true of other nations....

Someone send a cable to the president, and tell him to rethink his philosophical and moral starting point, before he moves any further (as he intends to) with his radicals statist agenda. Lest he find out that his so-called "comeback" is as short-lived as the hopes of a Washington Nationals fan...

Ask A Socialist: When Is Enough, Enough?

Thomas Sowell points out the hypocrisy of socialist Senator Barry Sanders of Vermont, who desperately tried to filibuster the extension of the Bush tax cuts on the grounds that "the rich" might get to keep more of their own earnings:

When arguing against the tax compromise, Sen. Bernie Sanders castigated "the rich," asking "When is enough enough?" and saying that "reckless uncontrollable greed is like a disease." Such statements are far more applicable to government big spenders and big taxers, who confiscate not only the earnings of today's citizens, but the earnings of generations yet unborn, who will be left a record-breaking national debt.

We, the people, must have limits forced upon us so that the government can have no limits forced upon them.

A philosophy only a socialist - or a tyrant - could love...

Does Jersey Pervert Everyone Who Touches It??

Well, even if these alleged foot-fetish videos were filmed before Michelle Ryan and her husband, Rex Ryan -who coaches some local football team - came to town, of course it doesn't come out until they're firmly ensconced in New Jersey.

Via JammieWearingFool:

One of the four videos on the sports gossip site Deadspin.com show the woman and an off-screen cameraman who sounds like Ryan having intimate discussions about her feet.

The petite blonde showing off her toes in the videos bears an uncanny resemblance to Michelle Ryan, the coach's wife of 23 years.

Deadspin reported that the woman featured in the videos goes by the Internet handle "Ihaveprettyfeet" and has more than looks in common with the coach's wife.

Like Michelle Ryan, the 47-year-old woman is a housewife with a master's degree, a Virgo and once lived in Ellicott City, Md., which is where the Ryans lived before they moved to New York, Deadspin said.

Reached for comment, a Jets spokesman said only: "This is a personal matter and Rex will have no comment."

In one clip, the woman is sitting in a green SUV with her bare feet hanging out the window when she is approached by the sound-alike Rex Ryan.

"You have really beautiful feet," the unseen cameraman tells the woman.

Judge for yourself, video is here. Four more here.

And there is this...man, that guy in the video sure sounds like Rex:



We've got Tony Soprano, Snooki and the Situation, The Turnpike, enough corruption to choke a horse, and now this - a playoff team whose coach and wife dabble in home-made festish videos.

I swear, New Jersey is like the biblical Job of the United States - just how much more can we possibly take before we forsake the good Lord himself?

Meanwhile, I can't wait to watch this Sunday's game, as no doubt Ryan will be taunted by the bare tootsies of Chicago Bear fans all game long...sigh....


UPDATE: Let's go to Jules Winnfield & Vincent Vega, who appear to be the experts in this area:

START: Obama's Surrender To Russia?

Well. losing the Cold War was likely always a dream to young Barack...but now that he's president, how can he right that historical wrong? Why, by signing a treaty that essentially wipes out our military superiority over Russia! This way, the next time - which looks to be drawing closer and closer - the United States will not have the "unfair advantage" granted to the stronger, smarter, savvier nation...

Take a look at some of the national security giveaways Barack Obama is fighting for:

-legally binding language on missile defense deployments limiting only the United States and not Russia

-delivery vehicle limitations requiring unilateral reductions of the United States
failing to address at all Russia's 10-to-1 advantage in tactical nuclear weapons, presumably because Russia did not want to talk about that

-a telemetry regime protecting Russia's ability to develop new missiles without sharing any information about them with us

-a verification regime that negotiated away our monitoring presence at the Votkinsk missile facility

-Russia is not prevented from deploying large numbers of land-based MIRVs, which have been described as the most destabilizing nuclear weapon system, and where the United States has announced it will de-MIRV its ICBMs. START II banned land-based MIRVs, but its progeny puts them right back in the Russian arsenal.

So desperate was Obama to get a treaty, that he "negotiated" away everything. But hey - he gets to fulfill his sophomoric dream of nuclear arms reductions (by the United States, at least). What do we get, besides an empowered, increasingly aggressive strategic adversary? The opportunity to bask in the glow of Obama's success, I suppose....and something else to worry about.

Merry Christmas.

Is Michelle Obama Complicit In Creating The "Obesity Epidemic"?

Susananne Miller over at Hot Air makes a compelling case that we're about to see a new "cycle" in a world of famous "cycles" - cycles of poverty, cycles of violence, cycles of abuse - that we'll call the "cycle of obesity".

Both to be caused by, and healed by, the Obama clan:

With the destructive Keynesian economic policies President Obama and the Democrats have forced upon the country, in addition to rising household costs, high unemployment, and a bleak unknown economic outlook for 2011, many families will have no option but to eat poor-quality foods, rather than high-quality, vitamin-rich, nutritious foods. Ultimately, this will lead to an increase in obesity, poorer health, and higher health care costs. Additionally, how are parents going to teach their children about healthy food choices if they cannot afford to buy them... Now parents become failures, which creates a perfect storm for the government to step in and “help.”

How will the "cycle of obesity" be brought to a halt? Well, the government can turn it into a "war" - like the ones on drugs, and poverty - and wind up with a whole lot of parental units jailed for failure to obey the diktats of the Nutritional Nazis. Or the government can just get the f*ck out of our kitchens, and just pray we survive, somehow.

Like we have for the last 234 years, without government-ordered menus...

How To Create A Conservative

I remember as an older teen hanging around with a girl who was adamant in her refusal to smoke marijuana (and while that may not sound unusual now, it was back in the day). Didn't understand it, until I met her dad - a cheerful, smiling guy, prone to wearing his shirt buttoned half-way down, better to expose his chest hair and...his necklace, from which hung a 14 karat gold "joint"....

If a dope-smoking dad can turn you off to the chronic, what is this mom turning her son into, as she forces him to participate in a children's version of a cash for guns program run out of Providence, RI?

For seven years, Providence municipal and law enforcement officials have organized the event around Christmastime as a way to raise awareness of the dangers of playing with guns, real or fake.

Malik Hall, a round-eyed second-grader, looked apprehensive as he stood in line with his favorite toy, a thick, blue gun with plastic sword underneath the muzzle. The 8-year-old was furious when his mother, Amanda, told him he would have to give it up. Yesterday morning, he tried to hide it under his pillow, she said.

“I’m worried,’’ she said. “He might cry.’’

But when it was his turn, Malik strode dry-eyed and with quiet dignity to the Bash-O-Matic and fed it the gun. When his mother approached, he said nothing.

“You don’t want to talk to me?’’ Hall asked. He looked at her stonily and left to retrieve his gift.
Did she save him from a gangster's life? Or will he rebel and become something worse (in the eyes of a Rhode Islander): a 2nd Amendment supporting, Republican-voting, PC-loathing conservative?

Thanks, Malik's mom, for helping to get the next generation on the "right" track. As for me, personally, I'd love a gun with a removal sword - always have to be ready for the ammo to run out...

Hat to to James Taranto's Best of the Web...

Nina Totenberg: Taken Out Of Context?

Much has been made of NPR's Nina Totenberg's comment on "Inside Washington" this weekend, in which it was claimed she had said:

“I was at – forgive the expression – a Christmas party..."

Of course, we on the Right are having a ball with that - begging forgiveness for not using the bland, flaccid PC expression "Holiday gathering" is somewhere between pathetic and psychotic, and explains why Juan Williams could get canned for merely appearing with a FOX logo near his profile...

But let's look at the entirety of Nina T's remarks:

Well, these agencies, including the Defense Department, don't know how much money they've got and for what. And I was at – forgive the expression – a Christmas party at the Department of Justice and people actually were really worried about this.

My take? She's not asking us to forgive the expression "Christmas party", she's asking us to forgive the expression "Department of Justice"!

And guess what? Nina Totenberg is right! Under Barack Obama and his best bud Eric Holder, The DOJ has become racialized, radicalized, and politicized in a way that would have the Left and the media vomiting out of its collective eyeballs in horror had it happened in a Republican administration. The DOJ is now perhaps the most radical arm of the Obama administration, gleefully taking the blindfold off of Lady Justice, and raping her repeatedly until she is beaten down enough to finally twist the law in a way that satisfies the socialist dogma of the Democratic Party.

No wonder Nina asks for our forgiveness when using the phrase "Department of Justice"; the phrase carries no more meaning under the Obama administration than it does under the auspices of many a totalitarian state, who oft use the same phrase - and methods - to get the kind of "justice" their ideology demands.

So give Nina Totenberg a break. Rare to see such a solemn truth uttered so eloquently by a reporter under the NPR imprinter...



UPDATE: Nina T confirms our version of the story:

"I think that's kind of silly because it's obviously a Christmas party," she told us. "I was tweaking the Department of Justice. It was a touch of irony at the expense of the Justice department, not at the expense of Christmas."

Radical Muslims Aren't Evil, Rep. Peter King Is Evil !

That's the impression you'd get from reading the scare-quote headline and story in today's New York Daily News (vying for the NYT for audience these days, having giving up on catching up with Murdoch's Post, while losing readers to Murdoch's new "New York-centric" WSJ), a piece that has been picked up fairly far and wide, along with the picture the paper willingly provided (likely the worst one they could find):

Rep. Peter King to hold hearings on 'radicalization' of American Muslims, critics fear witchhunt

Rep. Peter King said Sunday he'll hold hearings on the "radicalization of the American Muslim community" - but some critics fear an anti-Islamic witchhunt.

King (R-L.I.) said a Congressional probe is needed because Al Qaeda has increasingly targeted Muslims living legally in the United States as potential terror recruits.

Despite the threat to their own community, King said, some Islamic clerics resist cooperating with investigators.

"We want to assess the extent of the radicalization of the Muslim community," he said. "It's clear to me there has not been sufficient cooperation."

King is right, of course, and one needs to look no further than today's headlines from Great Britain - 12 men arrested over suspected UK terrorism plot - to see that Rep. King is trying to head off a similar problem here in the States. Which, apparently, is evil, because...CAIR says so. With no backup or follow-up, the News prints their claims:

"We're concerned that it'll become a new McCarthy-type hearing," said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Hooper speaks to irrational fears, King speaks to rational ones:

King says he once had a close relationship with the Long Island Muslim community and was a regular visitor at a local mosque - but that changed.

"The overwhelming majority of Muslims are outstanding citizens," King said.

Since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, King was disappointed that some Muslims refused to accept Al Qaeda was responsible.

Even when terrorists started trying to recruit Americans, Islamic clerics instructed their flocks to keep quiet, King said.

"It's extensive throughout the country," he said. "This will be an investigation into the issue."

Go for it, Mr. King. And be prepared for the calls for your racist, evil head just for the attempt to avert a radicalization of our homegrown Muslim population, one that will lead to terror without end, as the Left handcuffs our authorities with bogus cries of civil liberties infractions and "witch hunts"...

The scare quotes and propaganda pics in the News are only the beginning, Mr. King, so stay strong...the closer you get to the truth, the more folks will fight you with every weapon in their arsenal to stop it from coming out...


UPDATE: And the first useful idiot is...Mayor Bloomberg! A "Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent..."

Julian Assange Conspiracy Theory - He's Working For Israel ! He's A Conservative Stooge !

It's been a while since I've delved into conspiracy theory - as I had so much fun with the BP Oil Spill - but runaway rapist and Wikileaks document dumper Julian Assange presents too juicy a target.

From thankfully unknown blogger Maidhc Ó Cathail, we get this:

It is surely just a coincidence that the law firm – Finers Stephens Innocent – which represents Julian Assange and set up the Julian Assange Defense Fund is also legal adviser to the Rothschild Waddesdon Trust; that the partially Rothschild-owned Economist gave Assange its 2008 Freedom of Expression Award; that Lord Rothschild is deputy chairman of BSkyB, whose warmongering chairman Rupert Murdoch and his propagandist father were lauded as fearless advocates of the truth by the WikiLeaks founder in an op-ed in the Murdoch-owned The Australian; that the only world leader “undoubtedly delighted” by the leaks, Benjamin Netanyahu – who often stays with Murdoch in London and has the award-winning pro-Israel media magnate on his “list of millionaires” (i.e. potential donors) – was singled out by Assange as a believer in diplomatic transparency; and that WikiLeaks has provided an unexpected “diplomatic coup” for the criminal state which was first promised to British Zionists in an enigmatic 1917 letter to an earlier Lord Rothschild.

FOX News, Zionists, and Jews, oh my! Of course, the fact that WikiLeaks is staffed head-to-toe with anti-Semitic Holocaust deniers is just a cover, no doubt, for their radical Israel-first agenda...

Inadvertently, she hits our second theory in a roundabout way - that Assaange really is a right-wing nut working for the dark forces of the Republican underworld, as his cables seem to verify the conservative worldview:

....on the day after WikiLeaks’ publication of U.S. diplomatic cables, Netanyahu “strode” into a press conference at the Israeli Journalists Association, looking “undoubtedly delighted” with the group’s latest embarrassment of U.S. President Barack Obama.

....according to Haaretz columnist Ari Shavit, Julian Assange “has shattered the accepted dogma on the understanding in the Middle East in the 21st century.” WikiLeaks, crowed Shavit, “proved” that the Israeli occupation and colonisation of Palestine was not the main cause of instability in the Middle East. Instead, the secret cables “revealed” that “the entire Arab world” is concerned about “one problem only — Iran, Iran, Iran.” Thus, Shavit concluded, the only way to bring peace to the region was to deal with “Iran first.”

If we dare deviate from the "Jewish problem" for just a moment, we can also see that the WikiLeaks disclosures helped bring to light more than just the tomfoolery of Obama's Mideast diplomacy - it also revealed China's indifference to a unified Korea, Castro's love for Obama as well as his banning of Michael Moore's "Sicko" (lest the Cubans actually demand the "mythical health care" shown in this "mockumentary"), armed aggression by Iran against Americans soldiers, and the non-stop 24/7 incompetence of Hillary Clinton's State Department, from the mocking of allies to her demands that we spy on foreign diplomaticos...

Actually, it all kind of ties together. The US government, controlled by Jews, feeds Assange documents that helps the neo-con agenda, which he then releases to the Jewish-controlled media, which makes them public, which gets secret Zionist Murdoch's FOX News - America's #1 purveyor of information to the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy - involved in spreading the "message" of the WikiLeaks cables far and wide...

And the rape charge? Bogus but useful, it allows our government and all others controlled by the Zionist conspiracy to pretend that they attempted to apprehend and incarcerate him, and offer no more than a shrug and a "Hey -we tried" when he eventually gets legally vindicated, and is set free to disseminate more Neo-Zionist right-wing propaganda....

Thin soup, you say? Mayhaps. But they said that about my great Gulf Oil Spill Conspiracy Theory, and - alas for us all - that turned out to be a straight flush...


UPDATE: This guy has it all laid out:

Assange is tied directly into the worst of the American neo-con religious-extremist fascist cult that has become international and has been since his childhood. Their program is power over the world, initially through chaos, and then consolidation of power via a religious-extremist controlled police state to bring order out of chaos...WikiLeaks is a major contributor to chaos, justifying growing national militarization and security apparatus, all the while “Family” aligned politicians disingenuously protest WikiLeaks powerful service to their agenda...


UPDATE II: R.S. McCain has got a bunch 'o wacky Julian Assange conspiracy/apologist links as well...and check out the Lid for more...

DADT Overturn Is "Historic"....

...because everything Democrats do is historic, even if it is reversing a law put into place by the last Democratic president:

Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Obama, was at the Capitol this afternoon to watch the final vote on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’....She called the policy’s repeal a “historic moment” — an act that makes the United States a “more perfect union.”

Because everything the Democrats do makes this nation a better place and makes Americans better people, even if it destroys our economy, wrecks our health care, and causes additional strife overseas.

The media chimes in:

In a historic vote for gay rights, the Senate agreed on Saturday to do away with the military's 17-year ban on openly gay troops and sent President Barack Obama legislation to overturn the Clinton-era policy known as "don't ask, don't tell."

Sigh..."historic", again. Reminds me of the overeager dog owner who repeatedly tells their pet what a good boy they are, such a good boy!!, for pooping outside...

Ironically, the AP gives us more truth than they likely wanted to:

...More than 13,500 service members have been dismissed under the 1993 law...

Which was heralded as a wonderful compromise and an example of Bill Clinton's political genius by the same media when he came up with his "splitting the baby in two" policies towards gays in the military.

Liberals always have good intentions, they tell us, so we should cut them some slack when the results of their work turns out (uniformly) bad. Hmmm...maybe we should ask the 13,000+ homosexuals who lost their careers under Clinton's polices - strictly due to their sexual preference - how good they feel right now...

The DREAM Dies...

...and with it, the Democrat's attempt to add 15 million voters to their rolls:

The DREAM Act cloture vote just failed in the Senate, 55 to 41.

The cloture vote was on the version of DREAM that passed the House earlier this month.

Among Republicans, only Sens. Bob Bennett of Utah, Richard Lugar of Indiana, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted for the bill.

On the Democat side, Sens. Jon Tester of Montana, Max Baucus of Montana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mark Pyror of Arkansas, and Kay Hagan of North Carolina voted against the bill.

Murkowski is going to be a nightmare; she will vote based on her 2010 "re-election coalition" (38% of the total vote) of spiteful Alaskan Democrats and confused Alaskan Republicans. Which will get her neither re-elected in 2016 nor nominated for the presidency in 2012, which some say is her real goal...

Her counterweight will be West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin, who, facing re-election in 2012, will have to vote as far right as a Democrat can in order to win again. He essentially canceled out Murkowski by voting against the DREAM, but don't expect that to happen every time...

Bottom line is that this despicable piece of legislation was killed on the floor, and another attempt by the Democrats to force through their radical agenda - despite it being historically repudiated by the populace - has failed.

Another win for the Tea Party? That's three that I can count, with two more battles - the START treaty and DADT - still on Reid's dockett.

Can we go 5-0? With each victory we get stronger...

The Tea Party, Victorious In Battle...

237 years ago last night, the Boston Tea Party erupted, a culmination of a resistance movement against the onerous taxation of the colonists by the British Crown. And as one of the earliest occasions of direct action against the Empire, it may have truly been the first shot of the American Revolution

And on its anniversary, their spiritual descendants rose again against a government that was suffocating them with taxation and regulation. Having voting out many of the offenders, the 21st century Tea Party's ominous stare was enough to make the foes of liberty quiver, and fail:

A massive bipartisan tax package preventing a big New Year's Day tax hike for millions of Americans is on its way to President Barack Obama for his signature.

In a remarkable show of bipartisanship, the House gave final approval to the measure just before midnight Thursday, overcoming an attempt by rebellious Democrats who wanted to impose a higher estate tax than the one Obama agreed to.

In a rare reach across party lines, Obama negotiated the $858 billion package with Senate Republicans.

"Rare", "Remarkable"....what made it so? Perhaps the pitchforks and torches encircling the Capitol?

While Obama was lucky enough to be able to retreat, Harry Reid amid the Senate Democrats were forced into unconditional surrender as their $1.3 trillion dollar spending bill - a battering ram to force the populace into slavery - was splintered:

Speaking on the Senate floor, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) says he is “sorry and disappointed” to announce that he does not have the votes for the omnibus spending package.

John McCain, American hero:

Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz) on the death of the omnibus: “I know this is a seminal moment, because for the first time since I’ve been here, we stood up and said ‘enough.’”

Again - was it the glow of the torches held aloft by the Tea Party that finally stiffened the spine of the Senate?

The Tea Party has drawn the blood of it's enemies, and they are being forced into retreat, leaving their discredited weapons and rhetoric on the ground as they flee, like an army of bullies and thugs torn asunder by their first contact with an organized, determined resistance.

The Tea Party Army must continue to move forward - early victories in battle do not presage triumph in the war.

Somewhere, our forefathers are high-fiving (or the 18th century equivalent), and toasting the New American Revolution with some frosty home-brewed ale...