I will remember 2010 as the year Obama introduced a new word into the language - "E-pants-ipation."
OBAMA: Rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of e-pants-ipation...
Really good things that happened in 2010:
---Scott Walker defeated Tom Barrett to become the next governor of Wisconsin.
---Ron Johnson defeated incumbent Russ Feingold to represent the people of Wisconsin in the U.S. Senate. So long, Russ!
---The Democrats lost the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
---Obama took a shellacking in the midterm elections.
---Americans woke up.
One's reaction to the controversy over the anti-Scott Walker bumper sticker being offered by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin may hinge on which version of the sticker one views.
Currently, on the website of the Wisconsin Dems, this is the sticker being promoted:
Scott Walker's not even in office yet, but he has already killed the high-speed rail project, and in the process sent thousands of family-supporting jobs to other states that could have been right here in Wisconsin.
Enough is enough. Since you can't take the train, sign up to get a free DPW bumper sticker that shows your support for high-speed rail wherever you go — and your support for the thousands of jobs the project would have created.
Sign Up to Get Your DPW "High Speed Fail" Sticker
Since Brett Favre retired from the NFL in 2008, there have been multiple instances, in word and deed, of him hoping for the Packers' demise.
Favre claims he harbors no ill will against his former team.
That, of course, is a crock.
A week ago, Favre once again was cheering for the Packers' defeat.
From ESPN:
Undoubtedly, the postmortem on Favre will last awhile, really until the 2011 season begins and he's at home, not headed to Miami or Washington or someplace where they're desperate for a legend to play quarterback. To those of us who follow the Bears, Packers, Vikings and Lions (no matter how inglorious they were as a group in some years), Favre will always wear green and gold. In fact, few things have been as exciting in 30 years of covering sports as seeing Favre, in his prime, play quarterback at Lambeau. It was like seeing Jordan in the old Chicago Stadium; or Larry Bird in Boston Garden; or, presumably, Joe DiMaggio in Yankee Stadium. Favre's a Cheesehead, not a Jet or a Viking.
That's certainly how the Bears' defenders will remember him, the dragon who tormented them for the better part of two decades. It must represent some sort of closure for the Monsters, to put Favre not out of his misery but theirs. A division title -- it'll always be the NFC Central to some of us -- and a little piece of Favre's hide on their wall make for a pretty good night for the Bears.
...What [the Bears] want now is the second seed in the NFC, behind Atlanta. That would assure a bye in the first round and a home game in the second round. But that means winning at least one of two remaining games: against the Jets at home or the Packers in Lambeau. And Lambeau brings the evening full circle, to a final mention of Favre.
Peppers was one of the Bears defenders who found Favre after the game, to shake his hand and wish him well, and more actually. "I was happy Brett suited up," Peppers said. "I figured it might be the last time I got to see him across the field from me on the opposing sideline. Yeah, I talked to him after the game. I told him it was an honor to play against him. He said, 'Likewise. … Go beat the Packers in a couple of weeks.'"
Wouldn't the Chicago Bears love to honor that last wish?
Mark Belling, WISN talk radio host, held his annual current events quiz today.
The quiz had its usual male bias, with a heavy dose of sports trivia. I think a woman should submit questions to level the playing field and provide balance, but it's Belling's game so he writes all the questions and all the rules.
The worst of Belling's rules is that he allows the winner of the previous year's contest to play. Past winners must wait until 4:30 to call in and participate, but they are eligible to play and win.
So, the same guy keeps winning.
The 2009 winner is the 2010 winner. He's won before, too.
I feel sorry for the guy that was the leader before "the legendary Steve," according to Belling, called in.
For the 2011 quiz, perhaps Belling should just ship the prizes to Steve and the rest of us can tune out and not waste our time.
__________________
UPDATE 2011: Mark Belling was cheering for "the legendary Steve" to win again. Steve managed to get through twice, but he blew it on both tries. Steve had won the last four consecutive current events quizzes, and five out of the last six.
Belling arranged to have Steve be the final contestant. He stayed on the air past 6:00PM to give Steve every opportunity to hold his title.
Even after Steve lost, Belling asked him more questions "for fun."
What the hell?
__________________
UPDATE 2013: The 2012 current events quiz was held on Friday, January 4, 2013. "The legendary Steve" got through once, though getting through at all isn't easy. He was out quickly and presented no challenge at all to the leaders.
Brett Favre has been fined $50,000 by the NFL.
From the New York Times:
Brett Favre, the Minnesota Vikings quarterback whose 20-year career is likely to end after this weekend, was fined $50,000 by the National Football League Wednesday for failing to cooperate with the league’s investigation into graphic photos and suggestive messages he was accused of sending to a woman while both were employed by the Jets in 2008.
The N.F.L. said it found no evidence that Favre’s behavior toward Jenn Sterger violated league policy about workplace conduct. The N.F.L. made clear that its policies do not extend to private conduct and do not pass judgment on the appropriateness of personal relations.
“On the basis of the evidence currently available to him, Commissioner Goodell could not conclude that Favre violated league policies relating to workplace conduct,” the N.F.L.’s statement said. “The forensic analysis could not establish that Favre sent the objectionable photographs to Sterger. The review found no evidence to contradict the statements of both Favre and Sterger that they never met in person, nor was there anything to suggest that Sterger engaged in any inappropriate conduct.”
The league added:
“However, Commissioner Goodell also determined that Favre was not candid in several respects during the investigation, resulting in a longer review and additional negative public attention for Favre, Sterger, and the N.F.L. Commissioner Goodell stated to Favre that if he had found a violation of the league’s workplace conduct policies, he would have imposed a substantially higher level of discipline.”
It is not smart to play a real-life version of "Frogger."
From the Associated Press:
A man has been hospitalized after police in South Carolina say he was hit by an SUV while playing a real-life version of the video game "Frogger."
Authorities said the 23-year-old man was taken to a hospital in Anderson after he was struck at around 9 p.m. Monday.
In the "Frogger" arcade game, players move frogs through traffic on a busy road and through a hazard-filled river. Before he was hit, police say the man had been discussing the game with his friends.
Chief Jimmy Dixon says the man yelled "go" and darted into oncoming traffic in the four-lane highway.
No charges are expected against the driver.
Hey, Big Spenders!
From CNSNews:
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.
In fact, the 111th Congress not only has set the record as the most debt-accumulating Congress in U.S. history, but also has out-stripped its nearest competitor, the 110th, by an astounding $1.262 trillion in new debt.
The year 2010 will mark yet another December to remember in film preservation. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today named 25 motion pictures—Hollywood classics, documentaries and innovative shorts reflecting genres from every era of American filmmaking—to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
Spanning the period 1891-1996, the films named to the registry range from a rare glimpse of San Francisco before the 1906 earthquake and the political thriller "All the President’s Men" to George Lucas’ student film in 1967 and his sci-fi special-effects extravaganza "The Empire Strikes Back." Also included in the registry are lesser-known, but culturally vital films such as the black independent film "Cry of Jazz," Luis Valdez’s "I Am Joaquin" and John Huston’s war documentary "Let There Be Light," which was banned by the War Department for 35 years. This year’s selections bring the number of films in the registry to 550.
Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, each year the Librarian of Congress names 25 films to the National Film Registry that are "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant, to be preserved for all time. These films are not selected as the "best" American films of all time, but rather as works of enduring significance to American culture.
"As the nation’s repository of American creativity, the Library of Congress—with the support of the U.S. Congress—must ensure the preservation of America’s film patrimony," said Billington. "The National Film Registry is a reminder to the nation that the preservation of our cinematic creativity must be a priority because about half of the films produced before 1950 and as much as 90 percent of those made before 1920 have been lost to future generations."
1) AIRPLANE! (1980)
2) ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN (1976)
3) BARGAIN, THE (1914)
4) CRY OF JAZZ (1959)
5) ELECTRONIC LABYRINTH: THX 1138 4EB (1967)
6) EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, THE (1980)
7) EXORCIST, THE (1973)
8) FRONT PAGE, THE (1931)
9) GREY GARDENS (1976)
10) I AM JOAQUIN (1969)
11) IT'S A GIFT (1934)
12) LET THERE BE LIGHT (1946)
13) LONESOME (1928)
14) MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW (1937)
15) MALCOLM X (1992)
16) MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER (1971)
17) NEWARK ATHLETE (1891)
18) OUR LADY OF THE SPHERE (1969)
19) THE PINK PANTHER (1964)
20) PRESERVATION OF THE SIGN LANGUAGE (1913)
21) SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (1977)
22) STUDY OF A RIVER (1996)
23) TARANTELLA (1940)
24) TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN, A (1945)
25) TRIP DOWN MARKET STREET, A (1906)
Does anyone really care about what Obama eats?
I don't.
CNN does.
Video.
This is news?
Takashi Saito is joining the Brewers.
Japanese free agent reliever Takashi Saito said Tuesday that he has agreed to a one-year contract with the Milwaukee Brewers.
"I received offers from multiple teams, and I chose the Brewers because they worked really hard to lure me in," Saito said through his management office following U.S. media reports on the two sides' agreement.
"I've wanted to play for a team that really needs me."
According to the online edition of Fox Sports, Saito is expected to earn close to his $3.2 million salary from last season.
...The Brewers, who finished third in the NL Central last season with a 77-85 record, earlier bolstered their rotation by acquiring Shaun Marcum from the Toronto Blue Jays and Zack Greinke from the Kansas City Royals.
Just like in 2009, Obama and his family are spending Christmas in Hawaii. Last year, the Obama family Christmas celebration did NOT include a church service.
From TIME, December 23, 2009:
The Senate vote on final passage of health reform almost scuttled their plans, but it looks like the First Family will still make it to Hawaii for Christmas. They've had a whirlwind holiday season so far, starting with the lighting of the National Christmas Tree, through hosting more than 50,000 people for 27 parties and open houses, and ending with a visit by the First Lady, Malia and Sasha, and the family's dog Bo, to deliver cookies to the Children's National Medical Center. The Obamas have also started their own holiday traditions in their new home, adding a Christmas wishing tree to the decorations festooning the White House.
But there's one common Christmas practice not on the First Family's schedule: a visit to Christmas Eve church services.
...The Obamas have attended Sunday services in Washington three times this year — once at the predominantly African-American 19th Street Baptist Church, and twice at St. John's Episcopal Church across Lafayette Square from the White House.
Photo of the Day: Obama family at St. Michael's Chapel at Marine Corps Base Hawaii
The protestant service’s program was dubbed "Contemporary Worship Service,” including a Call to Worship, Praise and Worship, Offering, Special music, Dismissal of children for Children's Church (4-10 years old), Proclaiming the Wors, Scripture reading Matthew 10:29-31, Message, communion, closing song and benediction.
The Obamas stood up to sing, “Angels We Have Heard on High,” with the rest of the congregation of about 100 people. “Oh Holy Night,” was sung, followed by another prayer.
The scripture lesson read, “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows."
Chaplain Moses told the congregation these verses make the point that even “insignificant details” of our lives matter to God.
President Obama participating in communion, took a wafer and dipped it into the chalice. Malia and Sasha followed, with Michelle Obama going last among their family.
After church service was over the Obamas returned to their rental home, and then President Obama quickly departed for the golf course, his second tee-time this vacation, with the sun coming out and the rain subsiding.
If President Obama is looking for a New Year's resolution might I suggest he do in Washington with more regularity in 2011 what he did yesterday in Hawaii. Go to church. He can be discreet about it. No need to be all flashy about his devotion to God. Not that he would anyway.
But the upside of more pictures like the one here is that it would obliterate that other never-say-die conspiracy theory about Obama; that he's a closet Muslim. As an old editor of mine used to say (he's probably still saying it), "Don't tell, show."
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 404-yard game is Packers quarterback's best ever in regular season
He froze safeties with play-action fakes, beat blitzes with audibles, extended plays with his feet, threw the ball with pinpoint accuracy and even remembered to slide at the end of a scramble.
Aaron Rodgers was a video game come to life Sunday, pushing all the right buttons in the Green Bay Packers' 45-17 dismantling of the New York Giants at Lambeau Field.
In the biggest regular-season game of his career - the Packers had to win to keep their playoff hopes alive - Rodgers completed 25 of 37 passes (67.6%) for 404 yards, four touchdowns and a 139.9 rating.
His 404 yards were the most by a Packers quarterback in the regular season since Lynn Dickey threw for 418 against Tampa Bay on Oct. 12, 1980.
...Given good protection from his offensive line and enough production from the run game to make play-action effective, Rodgers shredded the NFL's second-ranked passing defense.
He completed passes of 80 and 38 yards to Jordy Nelson; 36, 26 and 24 yards to Greg Jennings; 33 yards to Donald Driver, and 21 yards to Tom Crabtree. He spread the love to nine receivers, and Jennings (142) and Nelson (124) both topped 100 yards.
Heck, most quarterbacks can't even dream that good.
"Yeah, this was without a doubt my best performance," Rodgers said.
He got no argument from the Giants, whose own playoff hopes were put on life support by Air Rodgers.
"He is a great quarterback all around," said safety Deon Grant. "He can run. He has a great arm, and he has one of the fastest releases you can get, so he wasn't allowing our defensive line to get there. He has a great coaching staff, and he has weapons."
Anything else? "That guy is just a lot of fun to play with," said Packers rookie tackle Bryan Bulaga.
Bing Crosby and David Bowie:
Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as Bing and Bowie:
The greatest gifts of Christmas are blessings from God-- PEACE, HOPE, and LOVE.
MERRY, MERRY CHRISTMAS!
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus
that the whole world should be enrolled.
This was the first enrollment,
when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town.
And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth
to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem,
because he was of the house and family of David,
to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
While they were there,
the time came for her to have her child,
and she gave birth to her firstborn son.
She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger,
because there was no room for them in the inn.
Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields
and keeping the night watch over their flock.
The angel of the Lord appeared to them
and the glory of the Lord shone around them,
and they were struck with great fear.
The angel said to them,
“Do not be afraid;
for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy
that will be for all the people.
For today in the city of David
a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.
And this will be a sign for you:
you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes
and lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel,
praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
Luke 2:1-14
On Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, James Earl Jones and Aaron Neville gave a special performance of a classic holiday favorite, "Twas the Night Before Christmas."
It's Christmas Eve and you need to know where Santa is.
For reliable information, use the official NORAD Santa Tracker.
Need more info?
Here are answers to frequently asked questions.
Also, you can speak to a NORAD staff member or get an e-mail to learn Santa's location on his route.
I would rather talk to someone at NORAD to find out where Santa is located. Is there a number I can call?
Yes! The NORAD Tracks Santa Operations Center is fully operational beginning at 2:30a.m. MST on December 24th. You can call 1 877 HI-NORAD (1 877 446-6723) to talk directly to a NORAD staff member who will be able to tell you Santa’s exact location!
Can I send an email to NORAD to find out where Santa is located?
Yes! On December 24th, you can send an email to noradtrackssanta@gmail.com A NORAD staff member will give you Santa’s last known location in a return email.
When will Santa arrive at my house?
NORAD tracks Santa, but only Santa knows his route, which means we cannot predict where and when he will arrive at your house. We do, however, know from history that it appears he arrives only when children are asleep! In most countries, it seems Santa arrives between 9:00 p.m. and midnight on December 24th. If children are still awake when Santa arrives, he moves on to other houses. He returns later … but only when the children are asleep.
From FOX News:
After serving a year in Iraq, Lt. Col. Brian Champagne gave his three sons the ultimate Christmas surprise. Check out this moving video as the young boys realize the Santa at their school play is really their dad!
Here's a last-minute Christmas gift idea:
Inflatable Fruitcake
It's festive, it's traditional and it's inedible - just like the real thing. Each vinyl fruitcake comes deflated with a 9-1/2" x 5-1/2" envelope and a decorative sticker, making it easy to send one to all of your friends and family! When inflated, this icon of old-fashioned baked goods is 8-1/2" x 5" x 4-1/2" and makes a great centerpiece for the holiday dinner table.
Why an inflatable Fruitcake?
-Nobody eats them anyway
-Reusable and re-giftable
-Cheaper to mail
-Non-toxic (unlike real fruitcakes)
-Always fresh
-No crumbs
The Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Carolers sing about 2010 events to the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas."
Today is Festivus.
From Festivus - The website for the rest of us:
According to the "Seinfeld Orthodoxy," Festivus is December 23. However, in the real world, many people celebrate it at other times of year, some throwing Festivus parties for friends and others they choose to be with in early December before they have to go home and be with the people they don't want to be with, namely their families. There are prominent Festivi all times of year. But if one adheres to the word of the character Frank Costanza, Festivus is the 23rd.
Like everything else Festivus, the AOG has evolved some wild variations, but the core of it remains lashing into others and the world about how they have been disappointments. This usually brings participants into a circle of sorts in which each takes turns excoriating friends, enemies, relatives, acquaintances and strangers. When all who care to have taken a turn griping, there is no required hugging or making up.
Janet Napolitano attempts to assure Americans that the Department of Homeland Security is working constantly to protect us.
"364 days a year"?
What about the 365th day of the year, Janet?
If Sarah Palin slipped up and said what Napolitano did, libs would never let that die.
Yes, Politico reported it to maintain some semblance of balance, but they didn't take the stance that Napolitano should be discredited because she doesn't know how many days there are in a year.
Napolitano made an "apparent gaffe."
She's not deemed an idiot or an airhead. Naturally, the libs cut her some slack.
Double standard.
This is a rare event. A total lunar eclipse coincides with the winter solstice.
From the Washington Post:
There are not many days like Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010. Take it from people who know - astronomers. There was maybe one day like this Tuesday in the past 2,000 years.
On Tuesday morning, astronomers say, there will be - or depending on when this is read, was - a total eclipse of the moon. And on the very same day, the winter solstice arrives.
The last time the two celestial events occurred within the same calendar day was long before any of our lifetimes. The year, according to Geoff Chester, public affairs officer at the U.S. Naval Observatory, was 1638. Although the solstice does not always occur on the same date each year, the date in 1638 was the same as Tuesday's - Dec. 21.
Chester said he looked it up, because as the time of the two events drew nearer, people began to make inquiries of him. He said his research took him back to the year A.D. 1.
That seemed to be reasonably far back. He consulted "a number of well-respected sources." And his finding, essentially was this: "It's a comparatively rare event." Although it does not appear to have any cosmic significance.
Few alive today are likely to see a recurrence. The next time the winter solstice and a total lunar eclipse will occur on the same calendar day will be Dec. 21, 2094.
Everyone knows that "the moon on the breast of new-fallen snow gives the luster of mid-day to objects below."
That is, except during a lunar eclipse.
The luster will be a bit "off" on Dec. 21st, the first day of northern winter, when the full Moon passes almost dead-center through Earth's shadow. For 72 minutes of eerie totality, an amber light will play across the snows of North America, throwing landscapes into an unusual state of ruddy shadow.
The eclipse begins on Tuesday morning, Dec. 21st, at 1:33 am EST (Monday, Dec. 20th, at 10:33 pm PST). At that time, Earth's shadow will appear as a dark-red bite at the edge of the lunar disk. It takes about an hour for the "bite" to expand and swallow the entire Moon. Totality commences at 02:41 am EST (11:41 pm PST) and lasts for 72 minutes.
If you're planning to dash out for only one quick look - it is December, after all - choose this moment: 03:17 am EST (17 minutes past midnight PST). That's when the Moon will be in deepest shadow, displaying the most fantastic shades of coppery red.
Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse from William Castleman on Vimeo.
Nina Totenberg was embarrassed to say that she was at a "Christmas Party."
On Inside Washington this week, Totenberg said, "I was at – forgive the expression – a Christmas Party."
"Forgive the expression"?
Video.
Transcript, from the Media Research Center
NINA TOTENBERG: I want to say one thing about the budget that didn’t get passed, the omnibus bill. You know, we talk a lot about – we just passed this huge tax cut in part because business said, you know, we have to plan, we have to know what kind of tax cuts we have. 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. These are law enforcement people don't know exactly what kind of money they can spend for what.
According to the Washington Times, Wisconsin's GOP chairman Reince Priebus has momentum in the race to replace Michael Steele as the chairman of the RNC.
For most of the nation's press, it's no secret whom influential Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is backing in the race for the next GOP chairman, but the one-time party chairman - and possible 2012 presidential hopeful - denies he's orchestrating the campaign that has given Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus strong momentum in the race.
With the election a month away, on Jan. 14, the backroom dealing has been heating up, even as embattled incumbent Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele revealed last week that he will run for a second two-year term.
Mr. Priebus, a one-time Steele backer who served under him as the RNC general counsel, is one of a pack of candidates seeking to replace Mr. Steele, who has faced heavy criticism of his handling of party finances, frequent media gaffes and accusations of self-dealing since winning election in January 2009.
...In such a crowded field, an endorsement from Mr. Barbour, credited by many in the party and the press with engineering the Republican congressional takeover in 1994 when he ran the RNC, could be a valuable asset.
Mr. Barbour told The Washington Times that he supported a change at the top at the RNC, but was not about to endorse one of Mr. Steele's rivals.
"I am not for anybody for chairman, and I do not expect to support anybody for chairman, but we do need to have a change," Mr. Barbour said. "Several people running look like they are qualified."
Even as Mr. Barbour is keeping quiet, two of the governor's closest allies - nephew Henry Barbour, a Mississippi RNC member, and David Norcross, a former RNC general counsel under Mr. Barbour - signed a letter to the 168 members of the RNC endorsing Mr. Priebus. Both say they acted on their own and merely informed Gov. Barbour of their intention to back Mr. Priebus.
As state party chairman, Mr. Priebus is credited with raising a record $14 million in Wisconsin over three years, despite having to deal with what Henry Barbour calls "the strictest campaign-finance laws in the country."
"He also helped organize the best [organizational] ground game in the country, stayed on message, managed the 'tea party' [activists] and other parts of our coalition, helped recruit strong candidates and delivered the most impressive victories in the country," the younger Mr. Barbour said.
Think back to 2008 and all of Obama's promises.
He was going to change the way things were done in Washington. His election meant a new era of politics in America. Everything would be different. Everything would be better. Obama, the savior, was going to change Washington.
He promised transparency. He promised "sunlight before signing."
From Obama's 2008 campaign website:
Sunlight Before Signing: Too often bills are rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them. As president, Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.
U.S. President Barack Obama, with congressional Republicans and Democrats looking on, Friday signed into law the most significant tax legislation in nearly a decade, hailing a "substantial victory" after a hard-fought battle with his own party.
The legislation, hammered out by White House officials and Senate Republican leaders, will extend the income and investment tax cuts of George W. Bush for two years, including those benefiting families earning more than $250,000. It also extends unemployment benefits for a year, cuts Social Security taxes and extends a bevy of tax cuts for low-income and middle-class workers.
Obama's failure to raise taxes on the rich, as he promised, is being described by some Leftists as a victory.
The guy had two years to spread the wealth around. He had the House of Representatives and the Senate. Nothing stood in his way.
But yesterday, Obama signed an extension of the Bush tax policy.
The New York Times tries to paint a different picture. The spin is at once funny and pathetic. It's Chaplinesque.
With the stroke of a pen, President Obama on Friday enacted the largest tax cut in nearly a decade and, in the process, took a big step toward reinventing himself as a champion of compromise in a politically fractured capital.
When he first struck the deal two weeks ago, a sour Mr. Obama announced it by himself, lamented his own agreement and testily denounced his Republican partners as “hostage takers” and his liberal critics as “sanctimonious.” By the time he signed it into law on Friday, little more than six weeks after an electoral debacle for him and his party, he stood with the Senate Republican leader and celebrated the package as a hallmark of cooperation.
“The final product proves when we can put aside the partisanship and the political games, when we can put aside what’s good for some of us in favor of what’s good for all of us, we can get a lot done,” Mr. Obama said buoyantly at a bill-signing ceremony in the White House complex. “I’m also hopeful that we might refresh the American people’s faith in the capability of their leaders to govern in challenging times.”
One leader in particular. Mr. Obama’s embrace of compromise comes as he tries to find his footing after midterm elections that cost the Democratic Party control of the House and pared its majority in the Senate. As the weeks have passed, the president who has emerged appears increasingly more confident than chastened, eager to revive his campaign image as a postpartisan leader who can work across party lines even at the cost of alienating his own supporters.
Such an identity is hardly new to Mr. Obama, but it has largely eluded him in his first two years in office. As a candidate, he managed to come across as diametrically opposite to different supporters, the leader of a new progressive movement to some and a reasoned pragmatist who could bridge the divide in Washington to others. If the first identity dominated his opening two years, the second may come to the fore in his next two.
“These two aspects of his persona have existed side by side from the very beginning,” said Geoff Garin, a Democratic strategist who in 2008 worked for Mr. Obama’s opponent for the presidential nomination, Hillary Rodham Clinton. However imperfect, the tax deal “spoke to a deep feeling in the country about the need to work across party lines to get things done,” he said.
Don Van Vliet, Captain Beefheart, passed away today.
Don Van Vliet, an artist of protean creativity who was known as Captain Beefheart during his days as an influential rock musician and who later led a reclusive life as a painter, died Friday. He was 69 and lived in Trinidad, Calif.
The cause was complications of multiple sclerosis, said Gordon VeneKlasen, a partner at the Michael Werner gallery in New York, where Mr. Van Vliet had shown his art, many of them abstract, colorful oils, since 1985. The gallery said he died in a hospital in Northern California. Captain Beefheart’s music career stretched from 1966 to 1982, and from straight rhythm and blues by way of the early Rolling Stones to music that sounded like a strange uncle of post-punk. He is probably best known for “Trout Mask Replica,” a double album from 1969 with his Magic Band.
A bolt-from-the-blue collection of precise, careening, surrealist songs with clashing meters, brightly imagistic poetry and raw blues shouting, “Trout Mask Replica” had particular resonance with the punk and new wave generation to come a decade later, influencing bands like Devo, the Residents, Pere Ubu and the Fall.
Sujata "Sue" Sachdeva, the Koss executive convicted of embezzling $34 MILLION, is sentenced to spend 11 years in federal prison.
But not yet.
She'll be spending the holidays with her children, out of the district.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
The former Koss Corp. executive convicted of embezzling $34 million from the company has been granted permission to travel out of the district to spend the holidays with her children.
Sujata "Sue" Sachdeva was sentenced in November to 11 years in federal prison for her crime, but she remains free on a $50,000 signature bond. Her children have been living with relatives and attending school in the Detroit area for most of the year, and Sachdeva has traveled to see them several times with permission from the court.
Sachdeva, 47, was granted voluntary surrender status by U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman. In such cases, the convicted person awaits assignment to a prison by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and reports to the prison on a specified date. The lag time between sentencing and reporting to prison for people on voluntary surrender status is six to eight weeks.
Adelman has recommended that Sachdeva be allowed to serve her time at Dublin prison in California, as she requested. The Bureau of Prisons can accept the recommendation or can assign Sachdeva to any prison it deems appropriate.
JAY LENO: Captured insurgents have told Iraqi authorities that al Qaeda is planning Christmas attacks in the U.S. and Europe. Well, of course, the U.S. government sprung into action. They told al Qaeda, 'Hey, you cannot call them Christmas attacks. You have to call them holiday attacks.'
Al Qaeda threatening to disrupt Christmas... Oooh! Who do they think they are? Relatives? Please.
Did you see what al Qaeda said? Al Qaeda said these attacks will bring our economy to its knees. Hey! Too late, pal! Sorry! Beat ya to it!
On Wednesday night, Jay Leno joked about the postal carrier in Wisconsin who delivered mail in the nude.
JAY LENO: A Wisconsin postal carrier has been arrested for delivering mail in the nude. You know, it's bad enough getting junk mail. Now we have to see the mailman's junk? What's that all about?
Is December the best time to be delivering mail in the nude in Wisconsin? He must be a pretty confident guy. You're not gonna look your best in the cold weather.
JAY LENO: A mailman in Wisconsin wanted to cheer up a woman on his route that he thought was depressed so he decided to deliver her packages to her naked. She called the cops, had him arrested. Apparently, she expected a bigger package.
After attending dance practice at Bay View High School, a 17-year-old Milwaukee girl was killed while walking from the bus stop to her home.
She was shot dead, an innocent bystander.
This is so sad, and it makes me so angry. It's beyond senseless. There are no words.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
The girl, Jonoshia M. Alexander, was not the intended target, police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said. Alexander was shot about 6:55 p.m. and died outside at the scene, near N. 4th St. and W. Keefe Ave., Schwartz said.
No one is in custody in connection with the homicide, which occurred less than a half-mile from Alexander's home.
Alexander, a junior at Bay View High School, attended after-school dance practice before taking a bus home, her aunt said.
...Alexander participated in dance, theater and advanced concert choir at Bay View, said Roseann St. Aubin, a spokeswoman for Milwaukee Public Schools.
Alexander was popular among her classmates and staff and recently played a role in the school's production of "Through the Looking Glass," St. Aubin said.
...Alexander has two younger brothers, ages 16 and 9, and planned to study dance and art theater after graduating from high school, her aunt said.
"She was a great daughter, a very loving sister to her two little brothers," her aunt said. "She had a lot going for herself. She had a lot of ambition. She was planning to go to college. She was a very loved young lady."
Alexander is at least the third MPS student killed in a homicide in Milwaukee this year, St. Aubin said. Connell Latrell Clemons, 18, was shot Oct. 31. Davit L. Burton, 15, was stabbed Nov. 24. Charges have been filed in both cases.
Meanwhile, police said Thursday they are seeking the public's help in finding Markus Evans, 17, who was last seen Wednesday night in the area near where Alexander was killed. Evans is considered armed and dangerous and is wanted in connection with several shootings, but Schwartz said the Police Department is not describing him as a suspect in Alexander's killing.
...Alexander's aunt said her family has little information about the shooting but was told the shooter was "just a little boy on a rampage."
JAY LENO: It is freezing across most of the United States. Two feet of snow in the Midwest. The good news: These are the first shovel-ready jobs Obama's come up with since he was president.
It is so cold in Minneapolis Brett Favre was texting pictures of his chestnuts roasting over an open fire.
It was so cold in Chicago Rahm Emanuel said, 'I'm glad I don't live here.'
JAY LENO: A Wisconsin postal carrier has been arrested for delivering mail in the nude. You know, it's bad enough getting junk mail. Now we have to see the mailman's junk? What's that all about?
Is December the best time to be delivering mail in the nude in Wisconsin? He must be a pretty confident guy. You're not gonna look your best in the cold weather.
On Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, we see the sensitive John Boehner get very emotional when answering questions from the press.
Some questions that Boehner couldn't answer without choking up:
What do you think of Republicans' attempts to repeal parts of Obama's health care law?
As a politician, do you use any websites to communicate with your constituents, like Twitter?
Are you going to see the new Tron movie?
Do you think Kim is going to have her baby during the next season of Real Housewives of Atlanta?
Can you even say your name without crying?
QUESTION: As a politician, do you use any websites to communicate with your constituents, like Twitter?
JOHN BOEHNER: I am on Twitter. It's a great tool, but I don't like that they limit you to 140... (Chokes up)
(Struggles to maintain composure)
I don't like.... It's just not fair they limit you to 140 characters. My dad used to say some of the most important things in life it takes about 200 characters to say. So, I can't talk about Twitter.
This video, from Mediaite, shows what an utter mess the Obama presidency has become.
Obama spoke to a reporter from 9News, an affiliate in Denver, Colorado. It's kind of strange for Obama to be granting interviews to local reporters.
Video.
Transcript
ADAM SCHRAGER: Sen. Michael Bennet - he wanted me to ask you about when you came to Colorado two years ago you talked a lot about changing Washington. He wants to know if you feel you've been successful. What do you feel you need to do next?
OBAMA: No, I don't think there's a sense that I've been successful. I think people feel that Washington still is dysfunctional. Now, we've actually made some improvements, mainly in areas where I've got complete control....
And it's my responsibility as president of the United States to make sure that I'm rising above some of that and sending a message that we've got to do better than we're doing right now.
JAY LENO: Did you see Brett Favre standing on the sidelines? Let me tell you something: if you're being investigated by the League for alleged sexual misconduct, don't hang around the sidelines doing this. Look.
Take your hand out of your pants.
Take your hand out of your pants. Don't do that.
JAY LENO: Can you believe the numbers all across the country? Five in Iowa, 13 in Wisconsin, 22 in Washington... and that's just President Obama's approval rating.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had fun reporting this story:
"Naked postal worker takes customer service to nude level"
What a lame headline! "Customer service"? "Nude level"?
INAPPROPRIATE.
The Journal Sentinel has changed the headline of the online version since running the story earlier today.
Now, it reads: "Postal worker arrested for delivering mail while naked"
A U.S. Postal Service carrier said he felt bad and stupid after being arrested for delivering mail to a law firm in Whitefish Bay while buck naked.
David A. Goodman, 52, said he was only trying to cheer up a 21-year-old female employee of the law firm who "seemed to be stressed out" when he made his first delivery to the office Dec. 4, according to a report from the Whitefish Bay Police Department.
Goodman, of the 7500 block of N. Seneca Road in Fox Point, was cited for lewd and lascivious behavior, a citation that carries a $681 forfeiture, police said.
According to the police report, officers were called to the law office in the 300 block of E. Silver Spring Drive shortly after 1:30 p.m. on "a report of a naked postal carrier in the building's hallway."
"No naked subjects or postal carriers were observed by officers," when they checked the parking lot of the building, the report states.
The employee told officers that when "Mailman Dave" arrived at the office about 1 p.m. to make the regular delivery, she mentioned that she still had to pick up the law firm's mail from its post office box.
She said Goodman left but returned about 10 minutes later and knocked on the door.
After the woman opened the door Goodman entered the office, where, "she was shocked to see that he was naked."
"The woman turned away from Goodman, held out her hand and said, "Give me the mail and get out of here."
Goodman immediately began to apologize before leaving the office, only to return about 20 minutes later to apologize through a closed door.
You've heard of No Labels.
A coalition of Democrats, Republicans and independents came together at Columbia University on Monday to launch a group aimed at taming the nation's hyperpartisan politics.
No Labels is not a third party, its leaders said, but rather a home for Americans turned off by a deepening divide between Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals.
...The group hopes to build a network of citizen activists and establish offices in all 435 congressional districts. Beginning in January, members plan to police the new Congress, calling out lawmakers who they think are too partisan and speaking up for those who cross party lines to find solutions.
It will form a political action committee to help defend moderate candidates of both parties against attack from the far right and the far left, said John Avlon, a founding member and one-time speechwriter for former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R).
"There's this idea that somehow walking in lock step with a party is courageous," Avlon said. "I think it's conformity. . . . That's the opposite of courageous. It's cowardly."
The group has raised about $1 million from seed donations, the founders said, with most organizers working as volunteers.
..."The country is not governable right now," [Mitch Dworkin, a Dallas-based political consultant,] said. "It's a bunch of little brats and children who throw tantrums if they don't get everything they want."
No No Labels has arrived to champion labels and mock nolabels.org We applaud divisiveness, deplore spinelessness and drink before noon.
Toothpaste or hemmoroid cream? without a label, you'll never know. Nolabels.org wants to make you sick.
Eye drops or superglue? Nolabels.org wants you blind.
Baby aspirin or valium? No worries! mix and match! Nolabels.org wants to poison your family!
In an interview with radio host Scott Hennen, President George W. Bush expresses his regret that the current debate over taxes uses the term "Bush tax cuts."
Audio.
Transcript
SCOTT HENNEN: I did a little analysis of the three most used words over the last, I don't know, three to four months here for sure, and they are 'Bush tax cuts.' It's everywhere right now with this debate going on. You talk obviously about the economic crisis and the financial crisis in your book, and it's obviously right now recognition of members of Congress of both sides that we need to keep your tax policy in place. Does that feel like a vindication?
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, I wish they'd have called it something other than the 'Bush tax cuts,' and therefore there would probably be less angst amongst some to pass it. But I do believe it's very important to send a signal to our entrepreneurs and our families that the government trusts them to spend their own money. And I happen to believe lower taxes is what stimulates economic growth and what we need now in our country is economic growth.
Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia Attorney General, talked with Mark Levin yesterday about the ObamaCare ruling.
Listen to the interview.
Read Cuccinelli's comments on the ruling.
12/13/2010
Dear Friends of Liberty,
Today, a federal judge in Richmond ruled the individual mandate of the federal health care law UNCONSTITUTIONAL!
In other words – we won!
This won’t be the final round, as this will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court, but today is a critical milestone in the protection of the constitution.
I am still fully digesting the court’s ruling, so I’ll get back to you again later with more details, but I wanted you to hear the good news right away.
I thank so many of you for your support to become the Attorney General of Virginia, and your support since then. Today is a day to celebrate those same first principles that our founding fathers articulated over 200 years ago. We are proud to defend their work and the same first principles today in the 21st century.
Stay tuned to this page - more information will be coming soon!
Sincerely,
Ken Cuccinelli, II
Attorney General of Virginia
JIMMY FALLON: That's right, the roof of the Minnesota Vikings stadium collapsed after it snowed 17 inches. Well, they said it was 17 inches, but Brett Favre texted me a pic and it looked more like 3 inches tops.
It ends at 297.
From the New York Times:
Brett Favre, the eternally young quarterback whose age finally caught up to him this season, will not start Monday night in the Minnesota Vikings’ game against the Giants, snapping one of the most remarkable streaks in sports.
Favre, who began the streak with the Green Bay Packers, had started 297 consecutive regular-season games, a staggering run of able-bodiedness that began in 1992, when Favre was 23. The streak was made all the more stunning because of Favre’s freewheeling style of play that included considerable scrambling. But at 41, Favre has battled a string of injuries this season, including fractures in his left ankle, a bruised chest and a split chin.
Finally, it was a sprained right shoulder joint, sustained last Sunday in a game against the Buffalo Bills, that sent the gray-haired Favre to the bench.
The Vikings put him on the inactive list before Monday’s game, meaning that he will not suit up.
Brett Favre finally has an injury that he can't play through.
The quarterback's starting streak of 297 consecutive regular-season games and 321 games overall, including playoffs, will come to an end tonight because of a sprained sternocavicular joint in his throwing (right) shoulder that he suffered on Dec. 5 against Buffalo when he was hit on the third play by Arthur Moats as he attempted to throw a pass.
Favre is inactive for this game against the New York Giants, meaning he is not the third quarterback and can not go into the game. Tarvaris Jackson will get his first start since 2008. Jackson played almost the entire game against Buffalo in the Vikings' 38-14 victory.
Favre, 41, who holds every significant NFL career passing record and is the league's all-time leader in touchdown passes, completions, attempts, yards and victories as a starting quarterback, has said this will be his 20th and final season.
His streak began in 1992 with the Green Bay Packers. Favre began that season as the backup to Don Majkowski but began his starting streak on Sept. 27, 1992 in a victory over Pittsburgh after Majkowski was injured. Favre played in the Packers games on Sept. 13 and Sept. 20 before starting against the Steelers.
The last time Favre did not play in a game at all was Sept. 6, 1992, when the Packers lost to the Vikings in the regular-season opener at Lambeau Field.
Favre never came out onto the field to throw in the pregame warmups, meaning he and coach Leslie Frazier likely knew well before the Vikings arrived in Detroit for this "home" game that playing through this injury wouldn't be realistic. Frazier said last week that Favre's issue wasn't reaching back to throw but rather following through on a pass.
Favre did not throw in practice on Wednesday or Thursday of last week and only softly tossed the ball on Friday. He appeared to catch a break when the Vikings-Giants game was moved from a noon start on Sunday to a night game on Monday because of issues with the Metrodome. (The roof collapsed the morning after the game originally was simply shifted to Monday.) However, clearly Favre did not have enough time for the shoulder to heal.
Favre has played through countless injuries since that time, including 16 that were listed in the Packers media guide before he left that team after the 2007 season. This season Favre was able to play despite a stress fracture in his left ankle and a fracture in the same heel that he suffered Oct. 24 at Green Bay.
Favre and coach Leslie Frazier said last week that they would not have Favre handoff to start a game.
Brett Favre Signed and inscribed 297 Starts Football
One of the most historic streaks ever in all of sports has come to an end. The NFL's own Ironman Brett Favre has ended his consecutive starting game streak at 297. Chances are if your under 40 you don't remember a time in the NFL with out Brett Favre playing on Sunday. This is a monumental feat especially at the quarterback position. Just consider since 1992 the Chicago Bears have watched over 20 QB's start for their team; and the average career length in the NFL is less than four years.
We are now offering Official NFL football signed by Brett with inscription: 297 starts 1992-2010
This is a Pre-Sale! Footballs will be available in about 30 days.
This is an Official NFL Brett Favre signed football with inscription. It comes with a certificate of authenticity and a picture of Brett from the signing and holograms.
$499.99
Barbara Walters declared on The View this morning that the next Speaker of the House, John Boehner, has an emotional problem.
After a clip of Lesley Stahl's 60 Minutes interview with Boehner, choking up as he talks about kids and the opportunity to realize one's dreams, the panel mocks Boehner.
Walters has spent thirty years doing interveiws that bring her subjects to tears. She wallows in her ability to get them to cry. She loves emotion. She doesn't criticize the displays.
In Boehner's case, however, displays of emotion are a sign of a clinical problem.
Video.
Transcript
BARBARA WALTERS: This guy, I'm sorry, he's going to be Speaker of the House, and he's not going to invite me to his Christmas Party; but this guy has an emotional problem, that every time he talks about anything that's not raise taxes, he cries.
And if this were a woman, if you saw Nancy Pelosi, who's been vilified, and I'm not taking sides, I'm only talking about if you saw her getting up and crying, she said, last month she was asked to comment on his crying, she said, 'If I cried about the personal loss of a friend or something like that, but when it comes to politics, I don't cry.'
If you had seen Nancy Pelosi all these past years crying, what would you say?
...I hope he's a good Speaker of the House, but he's got a problem.
"The only thing [Trump's] mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin's c--k holster."
"[Ivanka Trump] Your father is a racist birther. Steve Bannon an anti-Semitic opportunist. You and your husband are enabling hatred. F--- your shoes."
"Melania [Trump] is a hooker."
"And my job is to shut other white people down when they want to interrupt."
"We have to, at the DNC, provide training. We have to teach them how to communicate, how to be sensitive, and how to shut their mouths if they're white."
"And to our detractors that insist that this march will never add up to anything: F--- you! F---you!
"Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House."--MADONNA
"Barron Trump looks like a very handsome date-rapist-to-be."
"Barron [Trump] will be this country's first homeschool shooter."
"Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners, and if we kick 'em all out, you'll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts."
"There's a billion to one chance we're living in base reality."
[That means we're almost positively living in a simulation, like a video game.]
"When I would deny that there was a significant racist component in some of the politics on our side, it was because the people I hung out with were certainly not. When suddenly, this rock is turned over, there is this—'Oh shit, did I not see that?'"
----------------------------
"In any other scenario, Hillary Clinton's lying about her emails, and her pay-for-play relationship with the Clinton Foundation would be disqualifying issues. The only reason they're not disqualifying is because Donald Trump is a fundamentally more repellent, dishonest figure."
"I made a mistake in recalling the events of twelve years ago... I said I was traveling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG fire. I was instead in a following aircraft."
"I'm here to tell you if you elect me governor of this state, I will end the civil war."
"I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012. I might look at the constitution of South Africa. That was a deliberate attempt to have a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights, had an independent judiciary. It really is, I think, a great piece of work that was done."
"Callista Gingrich. Karen Santorum. Ann Romney. Now, do you really think our country is ready for a white first lady?"
"The death of Andrew Breitbart disproves the adage that only the good die young."
--JULIAN BOND
"The National Institute of Health has said that it is a danger to women's health and safety of their families that for 30 years to be exposed to the prospects of pregnancy."
"[Tea Party Republicans] have acted like terrorists."
"Why did- Couldn't the President have said at that moment, way back in December of last year, 'no game playing. No hostage-taking. No terrorizing this country with the debt ceiling. I'm not going to negotiate with you guys. You can't play it that way.' Could he have done that?"
"[T]he tea-party Hobbits could return to Middle Earth having defeated Mordor."
--WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL
"I remember distinctly an image of--we were sitting on his couches, and I was looking at [Obama's] pant leg and his perfectly creased pant, and I'm thinking, a) he's going to be president and b) he'll be a very good president."
--DAVID BROOKS
"I feel like calling her back and smackin' her around."
--FRED CLARK, DEMOCRAT
"The picture was of me, and I sent it."
"[I]f you go back to the year 2000, when we had an obvious disaster and - and saw that our voting process needed refinement, and we did that in the America Votes Act and made sure that we could iron out those kinks, now you have the Republicans, who want to literally drag us all the way back to Jim Crow laws and literally - and very transparently - block access to the polls to voters who are more likely to vote Democratic candidates than Republican candidates. And it's nothing short of that blatant."
--DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ
"This is probably one of the worst times we've seen because the numbers of people elected to Congress. I went through this as co-chair of the arts caucus. In '94 people were elected simply to come here to kill the National Endowment for the Arts. Now they’re here to kill women."
"The protesters have proven today that they‘re not going away. It was a pretty rough night last night. You can imagine if people said, well, we just can‘t fight the power. Instead, this morning, they came by tens, by hundreds, by thousands. By midday today, it was easily more than 10,000, perhaps as many as 15,000 people on the square here in Madison. Not organized by anyone, just grassroots citizens who came out just like the Minutemen in 1776."
--JOHN NICHOLS
"They're sitting on the money, they're using it for their own -- they're putting it someplace else with no interest in helping you with your life, with that money. We've allowed them to take that. That's not theirs, that's a national resource, that's ours. We all have this -- we all benefit from this or we all suffer as a result of not having it. I think we need to go back to taxing these people at the proper rates."
"Why don't we just raise the taxes and let these folks have their collective bargaining, have their union representation and go back to their jobs? Raise the taxes on the wealthy."
"In 1933, [Hitler] abolished unions and that's what our Governor [Scott Walker] is doing today."
--LENA TAYLOR, Democrat State Senator
"So I would urge my Republican colleagues, no matter how strongly they feel -- you know, we have three branches of government. We have a House. We have a Senate. We have a president. And all three of us are going to have to come together and give some, but it is playing with fire to risk the shutting down of the government."
"Well, when you start off with the Preamble of the Constitution, you talk about the pursuit of happiness."
"I'm Rebecca Kleefisch. I performed fellatio on all the talk show hosts in Milwaukee. And they endorsed me and that's how I became lieutenant governor."
"Do you think this Constitution-loving is getting out of hand? I mean, is it a nod to the Tea Party?"
"We can’t just leave it up to the parents."
"[Military leaders] tell us that childhood obesity isn’t just a public health issue; they tell us that it is not just an economic threat -- it is a national security threat as well."
"Actually, I did not take part in [the assassination of Sarah Palin]. I led it."
"[The repeal of ObamaCare is] a kind of creeping genocide."
"[Obama] has to realize that Mitch McConnell has virtually said so that politically he wants to cut out his heart and throw his liver to the dogs."
--DAN RATHER
"And the instructions are not to improvise a comedy sketch, but to elect a group of unqualified, unstable individuals who will do what they are told, in exchange for money and power, and march this nation as far backward as they can get, backward to Jim Crow, or backward to the breadlines of the '30s, or backward to hanging union organizers, or backward to the trusts and the robber barons.
"Result: the Tea Party. Vote backward, vote Tea Party. And if you are somehow indifferent to what is planned for next Tuesday, it is nothing short of an attempted use of democracy to end this democracy."--KEITH "Reagan's dead and he was a lousy President" OLBERMANN
"I gotta wonder when people are gonna start wearing uniforms. I mean they've got an army out there in Alaska of militia people. You've got these guys going around acting like street thugs. I mean it isn't far from what we saw in the thirties, where all of a sudden, political parties started showing up in uniform."
"[Sharron Angle] is a moron on top of being evil... I'd like to see her do this ad in the South Bronx. Come here, bitch. Come to New York and do it. I'm not praying for her. She's going to hell. She's going to hell, this bitch."
"So people have been hurting and I understand that. And it doesn't give them comfort or solace for me to tell them, you know, but for me, we'd be in a worldwide depression."
"And to play Dick Cheney, all I had to do was find my Dick Cheney. And you can find all the villainy in the world in your own heart, and that's what an actor's job is. I always say to kids, inside you is Hitler and Jesus. And you got to find the appropriate person and bring them out."
"Because I live in the District of Columbia which is so predominantly Democratic, I am a registered Democrat. But I am an avowed neutral. And to put that into practice, I take my young daughter into the voting booth and she votes for me. She's now 14. We've been doing this since she was about age 4. She's now quite informed."
"Sarah Palin's an idiot. Come on. This is a remarkably, stunningly, jaw-droppingly incompetent and mean woman."
"The Democrats may have moved into the center, but the Republicans have moved into a mental institution."
--AARON SORKIN
"Perhaps the greatest threat of all is the undermining of our Constitution and the systematic attack against the inalienable rights of the citizens of this nation, rights that are guaranteed by our Constitution. At the vanguard of this insidious attack is the Tea Party. This band of misguided citizens is moving perilously close to achieving villainous ends."
"[Christine O'Donnell is] a witch who doesn't masturbate."
"Ah, the Tea Party, the nativist bed-wetters who somehow control our national dialogue. Yes, I call them the Pee Party, Jay, because they're always peeing in their pants about something. They're just, they're afraid of a mosque being built in New York. They're afraid of guns. You know, they think Obama, who like every other pussy Democrat has never said a single word about gun control, but they are very sure that he and his Negro army are coming after their guns. You know what? If you think that he's coming after your guns, you need to get out of your chat room and have your house tested for lead. He's not coming after your guns or your Bible or your fishing pole or your chewing tobacco."
"That's a trade-off society is making because of very, very high medical costs, and a lack of willingness to say, you know, is spending a million dollars on that last three months of life for that patient, would it be better not to lay off those ten teachers and to make that trade-off in medical costs. But that;s called the 'Death Panel' and you're not supposed to have that discussion."
"NOT the 'whiteman's bitch'"
--IESHUH GRIFFIN
"[If Rush Limbaugh suffered a heart attack in my presence, I would] laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out. I never knew I had this much hate in me. But he deserves it."
--SARAH SPITZ
"You want freedom, you going to have to kill some crackers. You going to have to kill some of their babies."
"If this was Texas, which is the state that, that is directly on the border with Mexico, and they were calling for a measure like this, saying that they had a major issue with, you know, with undocumented people flooding their borders, I would say I would have to look twice at this. "But this is a state that is a ways removed from the border. And, um, it just, it doesn't make sense to me that when you google this subject, if you put in 'Arizona S.B. 1070,' that you see a picture of the governor of Arizona meeting with President Obama in May of 2010. If you have direct linkage to the president, there are already National Guard troops on the border in Arizona."
"Tell [the Jews] to get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land. It's not German. It's not Poland. [The Jews] can go home. Poland. Germany."
--HELEN THOMAS
"After the last eight years, it's good to have a president that knows what a library is."
--PAUL McCARTNEY
"By the way, I just want to point out I'm wearing my splash shield because I was told I was going to be in the splash zone (during Harry Smith's colonoscopy on live TV)."
--KATIE COURIC
"And that Word is, we have to give voice to what that means in terms of public policy that would be in keeping with the values of the Word."
----------------------------
"Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer or a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance or that people could start a business and be entrepreneurial and take risk, but not job loss because of a child with asthma or someone in the family is bipolar—you name it, any condition — is job-locking."
--NANCY PELOSI
"Back in World War II, we viewed the Japanese as 'yellow, slant-eyed dogs' that believed in different gods. They were out to kill us because our way of living was different. We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them because they were different. Does that sound familiar, by any chance, to what's going on today?"
--TOM HANKS
"The 'White Right' is trying to set Barack up to be assassinated.... Here are Christians praying for God to kill Barack Obama."
--LOUIS FARRAKHAN
"I refuse to accept the notion that the United States of America is not going to lead the world economically throughout the 20th Century."
--JOE BIDEN
"Obama's critics keep blasting him for Chicago-style politics. So, fine. Channel your inner Al Capone and go gangsta against your foes. Let 'em know that if they aren't with you, they are against you, and will pay the price."
--ROLAND MARTIN
"Martha Coakley is running to fill the rest of Ted Kennedy's term, and her opponent is a far-right tea-bagger Republican."
--CHUCK SCHUMER
"I tell you what, if I lived in Massachusetts, I'd try to vote ten times. I don't know if they'd let me or not, but I'd try to. Yeah, that's right, I'd cheat to keep these bastards out. I would. 'Cause that's exactly what they are."
--ED SCHULTZ
"We also see how revved up the tea baggers are at the thought of hijacking health care reform and every chance we have at making progress in Washington."
--JOHN KERRY
"A few years ago, this guy (Obama) would have been getting us coffee."
--BILL CLINTON
"I didn't realize I had written a column defending Roman Polanski and minimized his crime - are you sure it was me? I mean, I? There is, apparently, more to this crime than it would seem, and it may sound like a hollow defense, but in Hollywood I am not sure a 13-year-old is really a 13-year-old."
--TOM SHALES
"Joe Wilson yelled 'You lie!' at a president who didn't. But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!"
--MAUREEN DOWD
"One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game... During the 7th inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez."
--DAVID LETTERMAN
"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life."
--SONIA SOTOMAYOR
"We all considered sexual abuse of minors as a moral evil, but had no understanding of its criminal nature."
--REMBERT WEAKLAND, Archbishop of Milwaukee 1977- 2002
"You know, you might want to look into this, [President Obama], because I think maybe Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker, but he was so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight."
"Rush Limbaugh -- 'I hope the country fails.' I hope his kidneys fail."
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"[Obama] told me I did a great job. The first lady said the same thing. I got a 'well done' from the president, I'm on cloud nine."
--WANDA SYKES
"Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less."
--COLIN POWELL
"[Tea Party goers are] just a bunch of wimpy, whiny, weasels who don't love their country."
--PAUL BEGALA
"I wouldn't want [gay marriage] to go to the United States Supreme Court now because that homophobe Antonin Scalia has too many votes on this current court."
--BARNEY FRANK
"Going forward, my mind will be open to every solution -- except one. We should not -- we must not -- and I will not -- raise taxes."
--JIM DOYLE, Liar
"He's a terrorist. Rush Limbaugh is a terrorist."
--JOY BEHAR
"You know, I just want to say to her (Sarah Palin), just very quickly...F--- you."
--JON STEWART
"Should I be worried about being a slave and being returned to slavery?"
--WHOOPI GOLDBERG
"I also believe that America is the greatest sin against God."
--FR. MICHAEL PFLEGER
"Those who think they can revive the stinking corpse of the usurping and fake Israeli regime by throwing a birthday party are seriously mistaken. Today the reason for the Zionist regime's existence is questioned, and this regime is on its way to annihilation."
--MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD
"We'll be eight degrees hotter in ten, not ten but 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals."
--TED TURNER
"Look, [Mitt] Romney comes from a religion founded by a criminal who was anti-American, pro-slavery, and a rapist. And he comes from that lineage and says, 'I respect this religion fully.'"
--LAWRENCE O'DONNELL
"Mexico does not end at its borders... Where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico."
--FELIPE CALDERON
"The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say, 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that told me it's not a problem.' If the crib's on fire, you don't speculate that the baby is flame retardant."
--AL GORE
"Don't fear the terrorists. They're mothers and fathers."
--ROSIE O'DONNELL
"Is America ready for a black president? Well, I say we just had a retarded one. When did being black become a bigger deterrent than being retarded?"
--CHRIS ROCK
"Shut the f--- up! Shut up if you can't take a joke [about President Bush]!"
--BARBRA STREISAND
"Right, oh, yeah, Happy 9/11! Celebrate the day, right?"
--JAMES BROLIN, Mr. Barbra Streisand
"I think President Bush very well may have signed an authorization for the 9/11 attacks."
--KEVIN BARRETT, UW-MADISON Lecturer
"I said what I said. I am not guilty."
--SADDAM HUSSEIN
"Terri will not be starved to death. Her nutrition and hydration will be taken away."
--MICHAEL SCHIAVO
"On the eve of the election last month my wife Judith and I were driving home late in the afternoon and turned on the radio for the traffic and weather. What we instantly got was a freak show of political pornography: lies, distortions, and half-truths -- half-truths being perhaps the blackest of all lies. "
--BILL MOYERS
"I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for."
--HOWARD DEAN
"The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' or 'The Enemy.' They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win."
--MICHAEL MOORE
"And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the--of--the historical customs, religious customs."
--JOHN KERRY
"F---ing retarded."
"[Republicans] can go f--- themselves!"
"I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president."
--HILLARY CLINTON
"It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is."
--BILL CLINTON
"And let me tell you something -- for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment."
--MICHELLE OBAMA
"If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a Jew, uh, as a janitor, makes me a warrior for the working class, I wear that with a badge of honor."
----------------------------
"If you love me, you got to help me pass this bill."
----------------------------
"[F]or most of my lifetime, the United States was such a dominant economic power, we were such a large market, our industry, our technology, our manufacturing was so significant that we always met the rest of the world economically on our terms. And now, because of the incredible rise of India and China and Brazil and other countries, the United States remains the largest economic and the largest market but there’s real competition out there. And that's potentially healthy. It makes -- Michelle was saying earlier I like tough questions because it keeps me on my toes. Well, this will keep America on its toes."
----------------------------
"If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, 'We're gonna PUNISH OUR ENEMIES and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us,' if they don't see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election, then I think it's gonna be harder and that's why I think it's so important that people focus on voting on November 2."
----------------------------
"We don't mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but THEY GOTTA SIT IN BACK."
----------------------------
"We can absorb a terrorist attack. We'll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever... we absorbed it and we are stronger."
----------------------------
----------------------------
"We are the ones we've been waiting for."
----------------------------
"We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers so I know whose ass to kick."
----------------------------
"We're not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that's fairly earned. I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money. But, you know, part of the American way is, you know, you can just keep on making it if you’re providing a good product or you're providing good service. We don't want people to stop fulfilling the core responsibilities of the financial system to help grow the economy."
----------------------------
"If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."
----------------------------
"It is a vital national security interest of the United States to reduce these conflicts because whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way or another we get pulled into them. And that ends up costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure."
----------------------------
"But I -- I think that the most important thing for the public to understand is, we're not handling any of these cases any different than the Bush administration handled them all through 9/11."
----------------------------
"One such translator was an American of Haitian descent, representative of the extraordinary work that our men and women in uniform do all around the world -- Navy CORPSE-MAN Christian [sic] Brossard. And lying on a gurney aboard the USNS Comfort, a woman asked Christopher: 'Where do you come from? What country? After my operation,' she said, 'I will pray for that country.' And in Creole, CORPSE-MAN Brossard responded, 'Etazini.' The United States of America."
----------------------------
"I hear that Dr. Joe Medicine Crow was around, and so I want to give a shout-out to that Congressional Medal of Honor winner. It's good to see you."
----------------------------
"We are God's partners in matters of life and death."
----------------------------
"[T]he Cambridge police acted stupidly."
----------------------------
"I am going to teach [my daughters] first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby."
----------------------------
"The reforms we seek would bring greater competition, choice, savings, and INEFFICIENCIES to our health care system."
----------------------------
"Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go. Alaska and Hawaii, I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit, but my staff would not justify it."
--BARACK OBAMA
"In a word, freedom is ever new. It is a challenge held out to each generation, and it must constantly be won over for the cause of good.... [A] democracy without values can lose its very soul."
--POPE BENEDICT XVI
"When freedom does not have a purpose, when it does not wish to know anything about the rule of law engraved in the hearts of men and women, when it does not listen to the voice of conscience, it turns against humanity and society."
--POPE JOHN PAUL II
"We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."
--MOTHER TERESA
"To promote choice for its own sake is more akin to self-indulgence than self-determination. It is the philosophy of a pre-schooler in a candy shop."
--BRIAN POLLARD, M.D.
"The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people."
--MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
"The house we hope to build is not for my generation but for yours. It is your future that matters. And I hope that when you are my age, you will be able to say as I have been able to say: We lived in freedom. We lived lives that were a statement, not an apology."
--RONALD REAGAN
"Liberalism is the philosophy of the stupid."
--MARK LEVIN
"We are Warriors forever."
--BO ELLIS
"I know how much you're supposed to enjoy every sandwich, you know."
--WARREN ZEVON
