They’re not even trying to fake it, anymore:

As Drudge points out, CNN blasted inboxes this morning with its new poll numbers, claiming a “14-point gain” in support for President Obama’s health-care plan among speech-watchers. However, CNN’s methods are questionable. As CNN writes at the bottom of its report:

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted just before and just after the president’s speech, with 427 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey’s sampling error is plus or minus 5 percentage points.

The sample of speech-watchers in this poll was 45 percent Democratic and 18 percent Republican. Our best estimate of the number of Democrats in the voting age population as a whole indicates that the sample is about 8-10 points more Democratic than the population as a whole.

CNN’s sloppy poll, not its numbers, is the real news story here.

Why did they do it? Because they wanted to be able to puff up Obama’s speech – and they probably did it at the direction or at least strong urging of the White House. Rush has taken to calling the MSM our “State-run” media. He’s right.

To be sure, he should not have jumped up and shouted during the President’s speech – that is the sort of rude tactic our leftwingers use. It is right and proper that he has apologized for his action – but by very rude means, all Wilson did was tell the truth – Obama is lying through his teeth about what his health care plan will do.

It is the height of absurdity to claim that a bill which has no bar to illegals won’t cover illegals. It is equally absurd to propose covering more people, more of the time, for more things and say this will reduce the costs of health care. The final absurdity if Obama’s assertions that he’s willing to work with Republicans – we’ve been shut out of the debate, especially in the House.

In this supreme act of rudeness, we might find the final awakening of the American people – in the end, after all, just what were we GOPers doing in Congress last night? We were merely a prop – something to allow Obama to look more impressive as he peddled his falsehoods about health care. Wilson should not have jumped up, but Wilson should not have been there – no Republican should have. This wasn’t a speech of grave national importance where all Americans must pay heed…this was just a campaign event by a politician who is down in the polls and looking for a means to reshape the debate in his favor.

Ultimately, the worst thing which happened last night was a cheapening of the Presidency and the august event known as a Joint Session of Congress…Wilson’s rudeness just capped the whole affair.

UPDATE: From NRO: “Joe Wilson is Rude But Right“

Have at it, boys and girls…talk over the speech last night, how bored you are with Obama, how tiresome this whole debate has become, how tedious liberals can be…hey, wait a sec: that’s what they want! They’re trying to bore is in to submission!

Wake up! And lets make some fun of liberals.

We do begin to wonder just how much of Obama’s victory margin was called in to being:

Eleven people hired to register potential voters in Miami-Dade County before last year’s presidential election were being sought Wednesday for falsifying hundreds of voter registration cards.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office issued arrest warrants for each of the 11 suspects, all of whom worked for the local chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, (ACORN).

By early Wednesday morning, six were in custody, authorities said.

Of course, it could have had a bit of a different motive – as Obama won it without the necessity of fraud (which doesn’t mean that fraud wasn’t used), the bogus registrations could also have been cover for bogus donations. You know – make up a name and then that name also shows up in Obama’s donor rolls…with the money actually coming from some rich guy who’s illegally bankrolling the Obama Express.

We certainly have enough to launch a massive, nation-wide investigation. The problem is that our government got in to power with the help of the crooks, and thus won’t go after them. We’ll have to wait until people who honor the law are back in power…then we’ll have a field day with this stuff.

UPDATE: And it gets worse.

And oddly enough he’s also going to decry scare tactics:

President Barack Obama Wednesday demanded Congress act now on health reform, warning more Americans would die if Washington again does nothing to expand care and cut the costs of insurance.

He’s either the most stupid man we’ve ever had in the White House, or the most dishonest. I’m leaning more towards “dishonest”, but “stupid” is coming in a close second.

Consider this the open thread on Obama’s speech…

UPDATE: In contrast to Obama’s nonsense, Sarah Palin speaks some sense:

…How can we ensure that those who need medical care receive it while also reducing health-care costs? The answers offered by Democrats in Washington all rest on one principle: that increased government involvement can solve the problem. I fundamentally disagree.

Common sense tells us that the government’s attempts to solve large problems more often create new ones. Common sense also tells us that a top-down, one-size-fits-all plan will not improve the workings of a nationwide health-care system that accounts for one-sixth of our economy. And common sense tells us to be skeptical when President Obama promises that the Democrats’ proposals “will provide more stability and security to every American.”

With all due respect, Americans are used to this kind of sweeping promise from Washington. And we know from long experience that it’s a promise Washington can’t keep…

Indeed. Obama promises that the plan will cover more people for less money at a higher level of access and quality. Liars say such things and stupid people believe them. Sarah Palin is neither liar nor stupid. Can’t say as much for the liberals.

UPDATE II: Obama says its time to stop bickering. I agree. The people don’t seem to want a government option – so, lets stop bickering about it and ditch the idea.

Roger Kimball nails what Obama is all about:

…it would be wrong to infer that the so-called stimulus package was for naught. It really is bearing fruit. It’s just not the fruit that Obama promised. To appreciate this, you have to understand what the real — as distinct from the announced — purposed of the stimulus package was. It was not, as Sowell points out, “to get that money out into the economy as fast as possible.” On the contrary, the real purpose, Sowell explains,

was to get that money — and the power that goes with it — into the hands of the government. Power is what politics is all about.

More money and power in the hands of government officials, less money and power in the hands of individuals. That’s the real Obama ticket. Or, rather, it’s part of the real Obama ticket. For what we seeing playing out in domestic affairs is also going on in the international arena. What Obama is doing to us as individuals he is also endeavoring to do to America as a whole: to render it less powerful, less “exceptional,” more part of a housebroken collective.

For Obama and his Democrats, the whole purpose of all efforts is to secure more power over our day to day lives. They want us to lose our ability to make the major decisions of our lives – where we’ll work, what we’ll learn, how much money we’ll have, where we’ll live, what sort of transportation we’ll use…all of this, and more, Obama and his Democrats want control over. The only thing they’ll consign to our authority is the ability to get laid, as long as we have access to birth control and abortion (’cause they don’t want too many of us running around). Liberals are tired of pussy-footing around with all this American nonsense – they want us under control so that they can crush what they consider evil (ie, what we consider to be good about America) and turn us in to what we should be (ie, a carbon-copy of Europe…while, for some of them, a carbon-copy of Cuba would be better).

With victory this past November, liberalism feels it won for good and all – that there is no going back. They want to ram through as much as they can right now because they are smart enough to know that there will be a backlash in 2010 and, perhaps, 2012; but that is of small consequence…with more and more Americans dependent upon government, liberals figure they are bound to return swiftly to power…and, meanwhile, Obama will have overseen the hiring of hundreds of thousands of new government employees…people chosen for their political views and willingness to toe the liberal line. Even if a GOP Administration enters power, liberals figure they’ll control the day to day sufficient to prevent a radical, conservative overhaul.

And so, its the power, stupid – they have it and intend to use it to destroy the America we love, so that they can replace it with an America they’ll love (that it will be poor and nasty won’t matter to them – they’ll keep themselves well privileged and living the high life). Our goal then must be to wrest it from them – and I mean, all of it. We have to not just win the next election or two, but once we’ve won, we have to enact sufficient protections to prevent a future liberalism from usurping our rights.

We need to enshrine in our Constitution specific protections for what was protected in general – write in there, for instance, a securing of religious liberty in the public square. Make it so plain that only a clear overthrow of our government will permit liberalism to be imposed. We have to run through the whole bureaucracy and root out those who are determined to effect policy rather than carry out Administration orders – it is elected officials who set policy, not life-long bureaucrats, all too often hired and promoted on the basis of their subservience to liberal dogma. We have to reform the Courts – taking away from them their ability to usurp the rights of the States, or the people. We have to de-fund the left – take away all those massive taxpayer subsidies of what amounts to nothing more than leftist political propaganda (just why do we give taxpayer money to a group like Planned Parenthood? Might as well provide taxpayer funds for NARAL, while we’re at it…).

Up and down and backwards and forwards – our goal is not just to win a particular election, but to entirely break down the power of liberalism. Force them back on their heels; force them in to a rear-guard action to retain the tatters of power; force them to compromise with us just for a chance of a seat at the table. In short – remake America in to the constitutional republic our Founders intended and by so doing completely nullify the evils liberalism has imposed over the past century.

To raising our debt ceiling – and thus hold them to their own statements:

The Senate must move legislation to raise the federal debt limit beyond $12.1 trillion by mid-October, a move viewed as necessary despite protests about the record levels of red ink.

The move will highlight the nation’s record debt, which has been central to Republican attacks against Democratic congressional leaders and President Barack Obama. The year’s deficit is expected to hit a record $1.6 trillion.

Democrats in control of Congress, including then-Sen. Obama (Ill.), blasted President George W. Bush for failing to contain spending when he oversaw increased deficits and raised the debt ceiling.

“Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren,” Obama said in a 2006 floor speech that preceded a Senate vote to extend the debt limit. “America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.”

Obama later joined his Democratic colleagues in voting en bloc against raising the debt increase.

Its time to stop – $12 trillion in debt is quite enough. Other than funds needed to defend our nation, enforce our laws and provide vital necessities, everything should be on the chopping block. If we can’t squeeze it in to a $12 trillion dollar box, then we simply don’t need it.

This is really not about laying blame – all sides are responsible for this miserable state of fiscal affairs. We need, now, to get hold of things and stop digging ourselves deeper in the hole. Refusing to raise the debt limit is an excellent way to start.

At a rather astounding rate:

Data released by the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) reported 1,074,757 checks in August 2009, a 12.3 percent increase from the 956,872 reported in August 2008.

So far that is roughly 9,076,205 gun bought this year! The total is probably more as NICS background checks may cover the purchase of more than one gun at a time.

This latest jump in background checks show that Americans are solidly in-favor of keeping firearms in the hands of law abiding citizens and clearly shows that proponents claiming the USA wants more gun control are blatantly wrong.

Why are we arming? Because we note, with great care, that the “Justice” Department let thugs who intimidate voters off while setting out to investigate the men and women who have kept us safe from terrorism. Point blank: we don’t feel that our government is properly securing our rights. And so, people are taking out a bit of insurance.

This is just liberty insurance – and I like that it is happening.

Snow on Labor Day:

A dusting of snow fell on Mt. Bachelor’s mid-mountain Labor Day weekend, marking the beginning of a snow season that resort officials said should kick off skiing by the week of Thanksgiving.

Never knew the snow season began in Summer…