Geesh!

What if Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh were up front at Bush’s press conferences in the East Room?

Well, as network correspondents sat in the second row, liberal radio host Ed Schultz managed to snag a seat up front, right next to Helen Thomas.

Schultz told Politico’s Jonathan Martin that his front row was seat was assigned to him.

Yep, we can rely upon the MSM and the Obama Administration to be completely straight with us – no mutual back scratching, no wink/wink, nudge/nudge going on here at all…just move along, you Neo-con BusHitlerian idiots…who do you think you are? We won, don’t you know?

These are the wages of turning a blind eye to the illegal cross-border traffic between Mexico and the United States:

Mexican Brigadier Generak Mauro Enrique Tello Quiñones, along with his bodyguard and driver, were kidnapped, methodically tortured, and then driven out to the jungle and shot in the head.

This ambush did not take place in a remote area of the country, but in Cancun, one of Mexico plush tourist attractions.

Their bodies were found Tuesday in the cab of a pickup truck on the side of a highway leading out of town. An autopsy revealed that both the general’s arms and legs had been broken.

Tello, 63, had retired last month from active duty and moved to the Caribbean resort city to work with the mayor in the fight against drug cartels that have permeated a large part of Mexican society.

The full-dress military funeral last Wednesday was attended by President Felipe Calderón his defense secretary, attorney general, security secretary, and other high-ranking officials, who flanked a general’s coffin as an honor guard.

Spokespersons for the military and other government agencies issued expressions of outrage over the violent triple killing, in a drug war that cost the lives of more than 5, 000 people last year. The military has become increasingly active in Mexico’s initiatives to destroy the cartels and the leadership has vowed it will not allow Tello’s death to remain unsolved or unpunished.

According to U.S. officials, the attach on the general intended to drive a city into submission. One representative said, “That’s why it was done. (The General) was going in to take back the streets.”

Perhaps he was – but given the way Mexico has worked lately, there would be no surprise if we later discovered that the general was killed because he was trying to kick one gang out in order to allow another gang in. This is not to cast aspersions on the memory of General Tello – for all I know, he was an honest and upright officer, but the plain fact of the matter is that gangland corruption is rife in Mexico from top to bottom, and it largely stems from the way the drug cartels have managed to grow strong moving illegal people and goods across the US/Mexico border with the “wink/wink, nudge/nudge” cooperation of the Mexican government, hungry for that American money which has kept Mexico’s economy afloat.

But now the cartels are so strong and have intimidated or co-opted so many parts of Mexico’s government and security forces that they are essentially vying for control of Mexico – each cartel being run by a war lord who wants to be top dog in his area. Its a frightening lapse back into the Mexican Revolution early in the 20th century which ended up costing the lives of hundreds of thousands of Mexicans and which led to two American interventions in Mexico. The bloody and mostly senseless revolution spilled over several times into the American side of the border, and with larger populations and vastly improved communications of all sorts, what happens in Mexico will just pour over our border in larger numbers, faster, than it did back in the 20th century.

There is, unfortunately, not much we can do to help Mexico – prickly national pride prohibits any American attempt to intervene in Mexico unless we want to invade the whole country and take over, which is an action no American government would ever contemplate. But we can take the lesson – because we, too, turned a blind eye. We made much noise of securing the border and fighting the drug trade, but we really did neither. We wanted the cheap labor and didn’t want to be bothered with having do to the right thing, which was to have enforced our laws, given that all democratically created laws are to be enforced not only for the good of the law-abiding, but for the law-breakers, as well. The rising death and despair in Mexico is a direct outgrowth of two peoples and two governments unwilling to enforce their own laws.

It is to be hoped that the Mexican government will find those hard nosed, patriotic and honest Mexicans who will carry the fight to the drug cartels until they are destroyed. But my fear is that we’re seeing merely the first act of a long, bloody tragedy in Mexico – and a tragedy we helped create. Always, always, always do the right thing – no matter how painful it seems at the moment, its less painful than what will come after, if we take the easy way out.

Typical Washington, DC stuff:

Despite claims of cutting costs, new report by the Congressional Budget Office reveals the new Nelson-Collins “compromise” stimulus bill will cost at least $838.2 billion, an increase of $18.7 billion from the House-passed stimulus bill.

This is contrary to reports, like this article from CNN, that the Nelson-Collins compromise would reduce spending from the House bill:

But Collins also said she could not support a bill as large as the $819.5 billion package passed by the House last week. “We don’t want a package that is too small because that will end up just wasting money. On the other hand, we’re very leery of having an enormous package that would not be necessary and would just boost the federal deficit,” Collins told CNN as Nelson nodded in agreement.

As noted earlier on this blog:

But a closer look at the new 778-page bill (based on information available on Sen. Nelson’s site) reveals that the new Nelson-Collins compromise increases spending on over 130 government programs over the original House bill.

In the end, of course, no one knows what is in the bill – not really; it will end up being some low-level bureaucrats and Administration officials who will really decide how the money is spent, and they’ll spend it with a mind towards their future prospects for advancement. The only thing we can be sure about is that a lot of money will be spent – allegedly by borrowing, but I don’t know who has got $800 billion to loan us right now, so we’re probably going to end up printing a very large portion of it. As a good friend of mine points out, when you dump this much money on an economy, it will have a positive effect – temporary, to be sure, but it will be there. Of course, the fine print here is the utter catastrophe of dried up investment funds and runaway inflation which will be the price we, the people, end up paying for this.

A lot of grief is – justifiably – being directed at our three wet-noodle Republican Senators who signed off on this dog of a bill. But, no matter – it is to be expected that some GOPers would fall for it, given that we’re the Stupid Party for a reason (here you can listen – painfully – to Senator Specter try to defend his vote to Laura Ingraham). No sense in expending our efforts on Collins, Snowe and Specter – we really must concentrate fire on Obama, Pelosi and Reid. They are the authors of this bit of national destruction, and any time we spend on the “wets” of our party is that much less time spent on the people actually responsible for our impending economic doom (though if Specter gets in trouble in his 2010 re-election bid, I’m not exactly going to extend myself to help him out – one must pay the price of one’s folly, after all).

What can we do? We failed in 2008 to craft a winning message and put forth a winning candidate – now our running away from the Bush record seems to have been a large mistake; we could hardly have done worse in 2008, and had we stoutly defended the previous 8 years, we might have done better. Who can tell? But one thing I know from my studies of history is that doing the right thing is always best – and any attempt to toss someone under the bus to save one’s self is always punished. For now, we just have to bear up under it – issue our warnings, offer our alternatives, and start working to regain power…with Virginia in November being our first step.

Keep faith and keep a stout heart – this, too, shall pass…and remember, when we’re in national bankruptcy, it really is only money, and only liberals really care about such things.

Even without the Obama-Pelosi-Reid Fire-Up-The-Printing-Presses-Lets-Bankrupt-the-World “stimulus” package – from Gateway Pundit:

The Congressional Budget Office predicted that the current economic recession will end in the second half of 2009 without the trillion dollar stimulus.

From The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2009 to 2019 (pdf):

CBO anticipates that the current recession, which started in December 2007, will last until the second half of 2009, making it the longest recession since World War II. (The longest such recessions otherwise, the 1973–1974 and 1981–1982 recessions, both lasted 16 months. If the current recession were to continue beyond midyear, it would last at least 19 months.) It could also be the deepest recession during the postwar period: By CBO’s estimates, economic output over the next two years will average 6.8 percent below its potential—that is, the level of output that would be produced if the economy’s resources were fully employed (see Figure 1). This ecession, however, may not result in the highest unemployment rate. That rate, in CBO’s forecast, rises to 9.2 percent by early 2010 (up from a low of 4.4 percent at the end of 2006) but is still below the 10.8 percent rate seen near the end of the 1981–1982 recession. (emphasis added)

Truth be told, I doubt that – all else being equal, if we don’t pass Obama’s scam I believe we’ll emerge out of this recession in 2010. With Obama’s plan I see no end to the recession. Still if I’m right or CBO is right it is clear that Obama is wrong – all his talk of end-of-the-world gloom and doom is just so much political bovine feces.

Iowahawk strikes again.

Not bad enough they insult President Bush, they also have to insult the magnificent men and women of the United States armed forces:

…near the end of the show things turn tasteless as well. Ferrell/Bush asks the audience for a moment of silence to honor our troops who died in Iraq and Afghanistan. At the performance I saw, most of the audience members went silent but a few tittered nervously. Who can blame them? This is a comedy show. They were expecting a gag, and they soon got one.

After a few seconds of silence a phone on the stage rings, and everyone laughs. The relief is palpable. Hurrah! That thing about honoring our war dead? It really was just the setup to a joke!

Ferrell/Bush is startled by the noise too, because he’s already told us that the phone is just a prop that isn’t connected to anything. He picks up the phone, listens for a second and says, “I didn’t know ‘Annie Get Your Gun’ is playing! I love Tom Wopat too!” Then he tells the audience that he was afraid God was calling him on the phone. “Swear to God – I thought I was having a heart attack in my butt hole!”

The problem is, during what turned out to be merely a pause to set up the punchline, I actually was thinking about our war dead, and so were a lot of others. Left and right, we all believe, or supposedly do, in honoring the sacrifice of our servicemen and women.

Here, Hollywood is letting its mask slip. Ferrell and his director Adam McKay are so confident that everyone shares their contempt for Bush that they slosh over into contempt for all things associated with Bush: the show includes cracks about Texas, Christianity, and finally the military.

A complete and utter disgrace. Everyone involved in the show should be ashamed – but we’ll have to do a morality implant just to get them to understand what shame is.

HAT TIP: Sister Toldjah

Shades of Carter:

From crisis to catastrophe. Off a cliff. Dark, darker, darkest. Mortal danger of absolute collapse. Armageddon.

President Obama and top Democrats on Capitol Hill are deploying these and other stark predictions of doom and gloom to push through their economic-stimulus package. In terms not heard in Washington since the late 1970s under President Jimmy Carter’s watch, the new president has sought to terrify Americans into supporting the $800 billion-plus bailout bill.

While President Bush was accused shortly after taking office in 2001 of “talking down the economy” – and for saying the economy was “slowing down” – Mr. Obama is using ever-heightening hyperbole to hammer home his message. But the strategy brings great risk for the “Yes, We Can” man, who just three weeks ago told America in his inaugural address that despite “a sapping of confidence across our land,” his election meant Americans had “chosen hope over fear.”

“Mr. Hope has to be careful not to become Dr. Doom,” said Frank Luntz, a political consultant and author of the book “Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear.”

“The danger for him is using the Jimmy Carter malaise rhetoric, particularly for Mr. Obama, who was elected because people thought he was the solution. There’s only so much negativity they will tolerate from him before they will feel betrayed,” Mr. Luntz said.

One wonders why Obama seems so desperate to get this dog of a bill passed – and then one realizes we’re dealing with Democrats: so, its all a matter of paying everyone off who help, in any way at all, to elevate Obama to the White House. Why didn’t Hillary start a floor fight? Why did all those super delegates start crowding towards Obama? Why did so many big Democrat donors shell out quite so much money? Well, there is always that chance it was a principled stand – ok, ok; you can stop laughing now. Nope, the whole deal was predicated upon everyone getting paid – and Obama is trying to pay them.

Think about it – in a “stimulus” bill which we must have our we’re all gonna die, there are provisions for condoms. Who would even think to add such a thing to such a bill? I mean, its not like there won’t be plenty of opportunities for Obama to increase condom funding over the next four years…why chuck it in here, right now, and then go about telling the American people that their whole nation will crash and burn unless we rush this thing through, presumably with condoms still in the mix? It must be that those groups who believe that birth control is important made quick action on such a thing the price for their support. Everyone wants their payoff right away, knowing that if they don’t get it right away, they might not get it for years – or ever – depending on the ebb and flow of political powers and popular concerns. What Obama has here is a Chicago-style political payola scam dressed up as an economic stimulus package.

And now Obama seems to be deathly afraid he won’t be able to deliver the promised swag – and this, in turn, is making him use ever more overheated and negative rhetoric to try and stampede Congress into backing this scam. Carter lives – he’s younger, better looking and way the heck more hip, but Obama is the true Son of Carter…only we’re not yet sure that Obama is as dumb as James Earl Carter.

Not yet.

This is a worrisome development:

PRESIDENT Barack Obama has demanded that American defence chiefs review their strategy in Afghanistan before going ahead with a troop surge.

There is concern among senior Democrats that the military is preparing to send up to 30,000 extra troops without a coherent plan or exit strategy.

The Pentagon was set to announce the deployment of 17,000 extra soldiers and marines last week but Robert Gates, the defence secretary, postponed the decision after questions from Obama.

The president was concerned by a lack of strategy at his first meeting with Gates and the US joint chiefs of staff last month in “the tank”, the secure conference room in the Pentagon. He asked: “What’s the endgame?” and did not receive a convincing answer.

Larry Korb, a defence expert at the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank, said: “Obama is exactly right. Before he agrees to send 30,000 troops, he wants to know what the mission and the endgame is.”

Obama promised an extra 7,000-10,000 troops during the election campaign but the military has inflated its demands. Leading Democrats fear Afghanistan could become Obama’s “Vietnam quagmire”.

It will, indeed, become a quagmire – if Obama tries to place his judgment in military matters as superior to the considered judgment of the very same military leaders who crafted victory in the Iraq campaign. One is concerned that the zero-military experience Obama is making judgment about strategy or the lack thereof – Obama could have been doing some intensive study of military history since November but if he has, I haven’t heard it. As far as I can tell, he’s never so much as picked up a book on military affairs.

It is for the President to set the broad goals of American military policy, it is for the professionals of the US military to carry them out. In the campaign, Obama said he would secure victory in Afghanistan – indeed, one of the selling points he used on himself was the claim that he, unlike former President Bush or Senator McCain, would ensure that victory was achieved in Afghanistan. The goal has been set, the military says it needs 30,000 more troops – I advise against anyone second-guessing this unless there is some concrete fact which argues against sending troops in those number…worrying that there isn’t an “endgame”, especially when the worries come from a rank amateur, is asinine. Let the military do the job we’ve set for it – we’ll know soon enough if they are on the right track or whether they’ve made boneheaded mistakes. This is especially true now that we have battle-tested troops and officers who have shown themselves capable of handling whatever mission is given.

The choices for President Obama are to fight or to withdraw – if we are to fight, we must provide the military, in large terms, whatever it says it needs for victory. If we aren’t to do this, then we should get out now before there is a large effusion of blood for no purpose. I, naturally, believe we should fight for victory; I pledge to be a loyal supporter of the President regarding Afghanistan as long as he is attempting to secure victory – but the moment I perceive a lack of will to victory I will go into opposition on the continuation of the Afghan campaign. Loss of Afghanistan would be a catastrophe for America, Afghanistan and the world…but I can’t agree to continued bloodshed if the President is not clearly fighting for absolute victory.

I hope I’m just being a bit of a Nervous Nellie here with a new, inexperienced President. I really hope that is the case.

And not much else, if this Rasmussen poll is correct:

Support for the economic recovery plan working its way through Congress has fallen again this week. For the first time, a plurality of voters nationwide oppose the $800-billion-plus plan.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 37% favor the legislation, 43% are opposed, and 20% are not sure.

Two weeks ago, 45% supported the plan. Last week, 42% supported it.

Down, down, down it goes – where it stops, no body knows. As more and more gets learned of this boondoggle, the lower support for it goes. Once again, the strongest weapon we have to thwart this bill is delay – keep it tied up and allow more and more Americans to find out what the bill does.

It is to be hoped that Obama and his Democrats will figure out that their grand plan to spend us into oblivion is failing in the public square. Its time to call in the GOP and moderate Democrats and work out a genuine economic recovery bill where everyone gets input and all issues are aired in public before the votes are held.

A bad sign for Democrats:

Republican Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell has a three-to-nine point lead against three hopefuls for the Democratic nomination in this year’s closely-watched Virginia gubernatorial contest.

McDonnell, who announced this week that he will step down from his post on February 20 to campaign full-time for governor, bested only one of the three Democrats in early December.

Now, the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows the lone Republican gubernatorial candidate topping his best-known opponent, Terry McAuliffe, by seven points, 42% to 35%. In December, he held a five-point edge over McAuliffe, a longtime Clinton confidant, major Democratic fund-raiser and former national party chairman.

McDonnell is even further ahead of Rep. R. Creigh Deeds of Bath County – 39% to 30%. The two men were tied two months ago.

Brian J. Moran, a former state delegate from Alexandria, led McDonnell by four points in the earlier survey but now trails by three, 39% to 36%.

Losing Virginia in 1993 was the precursor for the Democrats loss in 1994; losing Virginia in 2005 was the precursor for the GOP loss in 2006 – we’ll see how this plays out in 2009 and 2010. I like our chances in Virginia, and the more Obama we get, the more I like our chances in 2010.