From Rasmussen:

For the second time this month, 60% of Likely Voters at least somewhat favor repeal of the national health care law, while the number who expect health care costs to increase is at its highest level since August…

Of course, we can’t repeal – not while Reid holds the Senate (he wouldn’t allow a repeal to come to a vote, because it would pass), and certainly not while Obama is President as he’d just veto such legislation. But this does show that the GOP can gut the worst provisions of ObamaCare without risking voter ire – we can de-fund ObamaCare while leaving it on the books, hopefully as a dead letter.

And, once we elect a Republican President, we can then go on to repeal.

UPDATE: A bit about the bureaucratic implementation of the “death panels”. With 2,700 pages of law, a bureaucrat can find whatever he wants in there…repeal and replace is the only rational way to deal with ObamaCare in the long run.

Allahpundit over at Hot Air has an excellent run down on the rumor mill over this.

My take: If Hillary leaves the Administration prior to February, then its because she’s looking to a possible primary challenge to Obama in 2012.

Its not that she’d announce it as she left. She’ll leave, if she does, in fog of love-fest between herself and Obama with congratulatory speeches and everything being done to assure everyone that all is well and Hillary just feels its time for someone else to take the helm now that she’s got everything reset in American foreign policy. After she leaves, though, she waits, watches and carefully cultivates political allies as she sees how things go for Obama in 2011.

More than likely, there will be no primary challenger to Obama in 2012. Obama is a prohibitive favorite for re-nomination and, actually, must be favored to be re-elected in 2012, as well (as Barone points out). But Obama is balanced on a knife edge here – just a little more loss of support, and the wolves will start to howl.

And that is what Hillary will be looking for – polling data, economic data and just a general sense of frustration which indicates that Obama is a sure-loser in 2012. If the economy slips back in to full blown recession, then Obama is likely toast…but he could also be toasted just fine by unemployment remaining stubbornly high through 2011. Obama might score some points by playing rope-a-dope with the House GOP…but the House GOP might rope-a-dope Obama, as well (Obama is only considered smart by people who adore him…everyone not blinded by the Obama glow is starting to figure out that there’s just not much behind the teleprompter). If it is late summer of 2011 and Obama is on the rocks, that is when one must start to sniff around to see if anyone is crawling out of the wood work to challenge Obama. Hillary showing up in Iowa would be a confirmation of any challenge rumors…no matter what reason she ostensibly goes there for.

We’ll have to wait and see how this all comes out – but it could be a very fun election year in 2012.

Due to increased used of carbon by humanity, the much warmer world of 2010 has suffered a catastrophic blast of cold and snow. This is just the logical outgrowth of a warmer world – cold, wet weather. If the world had been cooling, people in New York would be forced to wear shorts and tank tops in December because we all know that the result of a gradually cooling earth would be warm winters.

Always keep in mind that if any doubts about this logic creep in, you should repeat to yourself – over and over again – that whatever is happening which causes you to doubt global warming is just “weather” while anything which tends to confirm global warming is “climate” (please note that you no longer have to assert that its “settled science” or “consensus”; you only have to believe that its happening and then go about comparing climate change deniers to Nazis, or some such).

So, how much snow has global warming produced in your neck of the woods? We in Nevada got our blast of wet weather last week – two inches or so of rain; I know this doesn’t sound like much, but for a place that gets about 6 inches a year, two inches in three days was rather astounding. Apparently we’re in for rain and cold weather for later this weeks, so you guys in the east should get hit again in the first week of January.

From the Daily Mail:

For someone who mangled words on a regular basis, it’s an impressive feat.

Former U.S. President George W Bush’s memoir has sold an astonishing two million copies since it was released in early November – and it’s not even in paperback yet.

‘Decision Points’, published both in hardcover and e-book form, is flying off the shelves, the Crown Publishing Group says.

By contrast, former president Bill Clinton’s memoir, ‘My Life’, has logged sales of 2.2million copies since it was first published in 2004…

I got a copy for Christmas from the Mrs…only just started to read it; a crisp, business-like book from a man who just wants to say what is on his mind. I always say look at what people do rather than what they say…while a lot of insult has been hurled at Bush, the fact that his book sold as much in a month as Clinton’s did in 6 years indicates the depth of love and respect the American people still hold for this man.

Flawed? You bet he was (and is). Made mistakes? Of course. Could have done a thousand things differently? You know it. But, in the end, he did what he did…and he’s right in saying that a true judgment of his Presidency won’t be possible until 50 years from now, when passions have cooled, the principals are dead and historians can see the long-term effects of the policies.

I said back in 2008 that we’d miss President Bush – and we do; not that he’d have found a sure-fire way out of the mess we’re in (there is, in fact, no easy way out), but we sure do miss a man who can make a decision and stick with it. We’re going to keep on missing him until we get his equal or better in office.

Just terrible news – from Lisa Graas:

My compatriots at Jihad Watch have the news about Islamist violence against Christians in Nigeria on Christmas Eve.

Nigeria: At least 31 dead in Christmas Eve bombings – Posted by Marisol on December 25, 2010 8:30 AM

Jihad attacks threatened against “the unbeliever and Christian countries celebrating Christmas” – Posted by Robert Spencer on December 25, 2010 1:04 PM…

…Nigeria: Pastor killed in front of his church, other churches targeted in arson rampage — Posted by Marisol on December 26, 2010 12:04 AM

I can find no condemnations of this violence from Muslims, but at least one Muslim blogger, at The Islamic Standard, believes this killing of Christians is justified, saying:

The Believers everywhere are rightly enraged against the policies of America and the secularist and nationalist governments that were left in control of their lands by the retreating colonialists after WWII...

I don’t put too much stock in that last statement. To be sure, its standard fare for radical Islam…but my view is that radical Islam isn’t a religious movement so much as a economic and political con job. Some people in Islam want quite a lot of power and wealth for themselves but they don’t want to earn it by working, nor do they wish to obtain it by doing well for the people and thus being rewarded with power…such paths to wealth and power are difficult; much easier, if you can do it, to just use insane violence to obtain your ends.

Unless and until we take the sternest measures possible – without paying the least attention to the softer versions of the scam (those con artists too squeamish to get their hands bloody but who yet wish to gain power and wealth without earning it – you know, groups like CAIR) – against the purveyors of this wicked violence, we won’t get anywhere. The con artist keeps at it until someone forces him to stop…its really just as simple as that (though, of course, the actual process of stopping these criminals will be long, bloody and difficult).

We can keep dancing around the issue and keep having people being killed – or we can act like men and women, and American men and women, and take care of the problem once and for all. The choice is ours.

From the Boston Globe:

…the threat of a primary challenge from conservatives — as well as the potential that national Tea Party groups will withhold financial support — appears to have grown, according to the movement’s activists. Brown’s votes in the past week follow his crucial support for the overhaul of financial regulations, which remains a particular sore point with conservatives.

“I think that there will be a primary challenge,’’ said Christen Varley, president of the Greater Boston Tea Party. “There’s enough of an underground movement in the Tea Party movement as seeing him as not being conservative enough. There probably will be multiple people who attempt to run against him.’’…

At issue is Brown’s votes for the mis-begotten financial “reform” bill, as well as the absurd START treaty. The theory is that Brown may draw a primary challenger – who would probably lose, but would also weaken Brown for the general election. Additionally, even if a primary challenger fails to materialize there may be a drop off in monetary support and voter enthusiasm – things which will be crucial for Brown in heavily Democrat Massachusetts.

As for me, I’m not too concerned about this – we pretty much knew what we were getting when we backed Brown. He’s a Massachusetts Republican – and that means he’s going to be generally to the left of the GOP main stream. He’s made no votes that surprised me, other than backing START…and that I put down to him likely being over-awed by the military brass’ insistence that it was needed. One foolish vote, however, doesn’t get me writing people off…and I believe that holds true for most conservative voters.

The crucial time for Brown is coming – as the GOP takes over the House, it will be up to the Senate GOP to stand firm and force Reid to bring up House bills for a vote on the Senate floor. Naturally, Reid will try to corral enough Republicans to gain cloture on Democrat counter-proposals which will then be sent to the House, forcing the GOP to vote on Democrat issues. If Brown wants to both refurbish his center/right credentials and avoid a primary challenge, then his best option is to stand firm against what will be an orchestrated effort by Obama and Reid to force through items on the liberal agenda.

If Brown stands firm, he’ll be fine – if be cuts the GOP off at the knees, he’ll be primary toast. We’ll see how it comes out.

Neatly displayed in a biased ABC News report – from Life News:

ABC’s Dan Harris gave a slanted report on Wednesday’s GMA about the Catholic bishop of Phoenix, Arizona stripping a hospital there of its Catholic status: “This is a story that involves a nun, described as saintly; a Catholic bishop; a world-class hospital; and a controversy now being discussed across the country.”…

What happened here is that the former nun in question excommunicated herself by participating in an elective abortion – ultimately, the Bishop of Phoenix decided to de-certify the hospital where the abortion was performed…it is no longer a hospital which can call itself Catholic.

That is really all there is to it – Catholics are prohibited from participating in elective abortion and by so doing, a person automatically excommunicates themselves. The Church doesn’t “do” it – you do it to yourself, if you choose that course of action. Secondly, the Catholic Church isn’t stopping the hospital from operating nor prohibiting Catholics from working or being treated there – the Church is just stating that the hospital is not Catholic (what this really boils down to is that Mass will no longer be offered within the hospital, plus a couple of other things which can only be done at a Catholic place).

Naturally, all of this has outraged the left and its cheer leaders in the MSM. How dare Catholics be Catholic? Don’t we know that our proper place is to do whatever the left tells us to do? And so ABC put out a report calling the former nun “saintly”, dragged in the sex abuse scandal (though it had nothing to do with this case) and essentially reported that we dumb, wicked Catholics are being all nasty about things. This does get rather tiresome.

No one has to be Catholic. No one has to be Christian. If you want to believing that butchering unborn life is ok, then by all means go ahead and do so. But don’t expect to be called Christian or Catholic if you do so – whatever the circumstances, it can never be justified to execute the unborn child in response to the problem. The left and the MSM can’t stand this – mostly because by standing firm for life we adhere to the position that each human person, as an individual, is important. Important individuals can’t be used as blocks of wood in liberal social experiments…and so valued human beings must be made to not exist. Killing unborn children is a very effective way to do this as not only do you get a dead human, you also erode the very concept that human life is valuable.

More than anything else, abortion has become central to liberalism. You can stray a bit form liberal orthodoxy in most cases and still be considered a good liberal…but you dare not do anything against abortion. As soon as you cross that line and assert that innocent people must not be killed, the larger left will turn on you in fury. Even quixotic candidates such as Dennis Kucinich were forced to abandon a life-time’s pro-life position in order to run for President. No one is allowed to dissent – for liberals it is death now and death forever. Any attempt to respect life is out of bounds. In the Church of Liberalism, abortion is the sacrament.

And that is really rather sad – killing babies as the most important thing you believe in! Moloch would be pleased…

Iowahawk strikes again.

Huh? What is “margin debt”? Well, let Zero Hedge explain:

It is not just the stock market that is at the highest levels since Lehman. Probably just as importantly, NYSE margin debt has surged to $269 billion, an increase of $13 billion from the prior month, and the highest since September 2008 when it was at $299 billion, and subsequently tumbled as investors rushed to get out of all margined positions…

This is a sign of optimism – but also a sign of “all in”. In other words, everything that can get in there to push stock prices higher is already in there. Trouble is, for stocks to keep rising there has to be a continual increase in buying. If everyone who has a mind to be in stocks is already there, and buying on margin as much as they can, then we’re at a peak. Where to from here? Flat or down – with down being the more likely of the two. But not necessarily right away…there is still some wiggle room for a bit more increase in margin debt and thus a bit more run-up in stock prices…and then, once we’re really maxed out, it might still be a while before everyone understands its time to bail out.

We’ll have to see what and when on the event which will trigger a sell off – sovereign default in Europe, further monetary tightening in China as they try (in vain, it will prove) to reign in inflation; further rise in US unemployment as the holiday sales bloom fades; further rise in foreclosures and bankruptcies as house values continue to drop (and they are continuing to drop). Lots of things can happen – the thing to remember is that there is no really good way out of this. No matter how it happens, bad events will come. Some can be worse than others, but none will be comfortable for an already weak US economy. I hope for the softest landing possible, but I fear we’re really in for it thanks to massive spending by Treasury and massive printing by the Federal Reserve. Fake money and government debt are never good things…

More of that good, old Bernanke-created, Obama-backed economic policy:

Proving that Ben Bernanke can even screw up the economics of Christmas, the price of a lump of coal has increased more than 63 percent in the last year and a half…

Bunch of morons running things in DC…it won’t get better until we get rid of them.