Via Insta, here’s some frankly frightening news about one of Pelosi’s potential appointments
With majority status in the “people’s house” comes a share in responsibility for the security of the Republic. This is why we are so concerned about a shadow which darkens presumptive Speaker Pelosi’s triumphant morning, a shadow which will only grow longer if she allows it to begin appearing prominently in the media coverage of the global war on terrorism, metastasizing into her first “intelligence failure” even before she takes the gavel from outgoing Speaker Hastert. That is the shadow of Alcee Lamar Hastings, the reelected Democratic Representative from Florida’s 23rd District.
Mr. Hastings was, in the outgoing 109th Congress, the second-ranked Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. But the Washington Post’s Charles Babington first reported more than a year ago, in a story that has never been denied (indeed, it has been confirmed in the congressman’s hometown newspaper, the Miami Herald) that Ms. Pelosi plans to replace the committee’s current ranking Democrat, California Representative Jane Harman, with Mr. Hastings who would be installed as committee chairman when the 110th Congress begins. The move would be a payback to the Congressional Black Caucus, to whose support Pelosi owes her election as Minority Leader and whose members she angered by picking Ms. Harman to be ranking member over Georgia Rep. Sanford Bishop in 2003.
Read the whole thing. Did I say it was frightening? But see, that’s because in my outdated outlook I see national security as the most important issue we face; it’s not something that can be ‘negotiated’ or you can ‘build bridges’ about. You have to fight, hard, and you have to accept, first and foremost, that the only letters that matter next to your name are not “R” or “D” but “USA”.
Not hugely, mind you, but a few percentage points here and there and the country remains pretty evenly split. The Senate seems to be 50/50 at this point, and in the House it seems to be 52%/48% more or less; not ‘historic’ or ‘epic’ as it will be spun, but things were so even beforehand that it was enough. Considering how poorly the GOP has done while in power and how far they have strayed from their professed principles they shouldn’t really feel too badly about that. It will be good for them; they were in power too long and it frankly corrupted them. Now we will get to see how the Dems behave for awhile.
And we here at The Swilling wish to inform your decision with this Helpful Primer sent via anonymous email:
DEMOCRATIC
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
You feel guilty for being successful.
Barbara Streisand sings for you.
REPUBLICAN
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
So?
SOCIALIST
You have two cows.
The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.
COMMUNIST
You have two cows.
The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
You wait in line for hours to get it.
It is expensive and sour.
CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.
BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
Under the new farm program the government pays you to shoot one, milk
the other, and then pours the milk down the drain.
AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one.
You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows. You are
surprised when one cow drops dead. You spin an announcement to the
analysts stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses.
Your stock goes up.
FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike because you want three cows.
You go to lunch and drink wine.
Life is good.
JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and
produce twenty times the milk.
They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains.
Most are at the top of their class at cow school.
GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give
excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour..
Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.
ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows but you don’t know where they are.
While ambling around, you see a beautiful woman.
You break for lunch.
Life is good.
RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have some vodka.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You have some more vodka.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have.
TALIBAN CORPORATION
You have all the cows in Afghanistan , which are two.
You don’t milk them because you cannot touch any creature’s private
parts.
You get a $40 million grant from the US government to find alternatives
to milk production but use the money to buy weapons.
IRAQI CORPORATION
You have two cows.
They go into hiding.
They send radio tapes of their mooing.
BELGIAN CORPORATION
You have one cow.
The cow is schizophrenic.
Sometimes the cow thinks he’s French, other times he’s Flemish.
The Flemish cow won’t share with the French cow.
The French cow wants control of the Flemish cow’s milk.
The cow asks permission to be cut in half.
The cow dies happy.
FLORIDA CORPORATION
You have a black cow and a brown cow.
Everyone votes for the best looking one.
Some of the people who actually like the brown one best accidentally
vote for the black one.
Some people vote for both.
Some people vote for neither.
Some people can’t figure out how to vote at all.
Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which one you think
is the best-looking cow.
CALIFORNIA CORPORATION
You have millions of cows.
They make real California cheese.
Only five speak English.
Most are illegals.
Arnold likes the ones with the big udders.
::sigh:: I hate to keep picking on you pinheads, but you, like Kerry, just won’t quit.
The Republican running for governor is…
C-H-A-R-L-I-E
Crist.
CHARLIE Crist.
Who the hell is “Bill“?
UPDATE: Miraculously, his name has changed to “Charlie” on the home page! Boneheads. But I hate to break it to ABC, no matter how they try to spin Crist ducking out on our Pensacola love fest, it makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE for him to be here. None. We are as RED as RED can be and if he wants to get elected? He needs to be schmoozling Jewish grandmothers in Palm Beach.
They are.
So take your garlic with you.
…that the President would be ~ of all places ~ here today. (I’d forgotten and almost got caught in the security crush taking over the motorcade route.)
But that’s nice he thought of us. And the faithful are always very appreciative when he shows up ~ Pensacolians are nothing if not warm and welcoming. It’s one of the things I like most about this place.
Many older workers who get laid off face a tough time replacing their salary, and Michael in California is wondering just what is happening to workers who lose their jobs as they near retirement.
…There’s no question that some people in their 50s and early 60s who are laid off from high-paying jobs can have an extremely tough time finding a new job at the same salary. This is especially true for those who’ve worked for the same company or industry for their entire careers — and have built up experience, wisdom or a full Rolodex of contacts that may not translate to a new company or industry.
…Still, it’s clear that many older workers are finding good jobs — especially as more and more baby boomers say they plan to stay in the workforce past the traditional retirement age of 65. Though big companies in older, mature industries may be making big layoffs — and getting the big headlines when they do — the overall U.S. job pool keeps expanding at a healthy clip. Since 2003, some 7 million more new jobs have been created than old jobs were lost. But “GM lays off 1,000” is news; “Advanced Bionetics hires three new workers” isn’t.
…“Older workers more and more are in much higher demand,” said John Challenger, whose company helps laid-off workers find new jobs. While “certainly (age) discrimination hasn’t disappeared,” he said, “for those who want to work the market is opening up to them.”
At least there’s a home page link on MSNBC. Once you get past Harold Ford’s picture, that is.
…this brilliant idea…
Rush-hour road pricing on the way say experts
A major push to impose road tolls at rush hours and on congested routes is on the cards.
Plans for drivers to pay for every mile driven at peak times or on traffic pinch points are set to be backed by a study commissioned by Chancellor Gordon Brown.
Government research has previously suggested a fee of up to £1.34 per mile would be needed to reduce congestion on main routes into London.
Other studies have proposed charges ranging from 2p per mile minimum to £2 per mile on badly clogged main roads.
…would certainly reduce congestion, because those who have no public transportation to their place of employment couldn’t afford to work anyway.
I live in south east london but work in south west london. There is no reliable alternative for me other than the car. if this road pricing comes in at £1.30 as is being suggested I will have a number of choices.
1)give up work as I would be working to pay road tolls. at £1.30 it would be £97.00* a day for me.
*Currently $184.41 US
“Immigrate to Australia” seems to come up frequently.
Round Two seems to have started.
Group: Sandinista Leader Ortega Wins Nicaragua Presidency
Leftist Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega appeared Monday to have easily defeated four other presidential candidates in his long quest to return to power 16 years after a U.S.-backed rebellion helped force him from office, according to a respected electoral observer group projecting victory based on a sampling of the votes.
Sweet Jesus. Who woulda thunk it? Not Ollie North.
…The prospect has horrified Mr North, who is now a conservative political commentator and activist. He told Nicaraguan television it would be “the worst thing” and was cause for concern. “My hope is that the people of Nicaragua are not going to return to that. That’s not good for your country. That’s not good for my country.”
The Sandinista leader, 60, still has the moustache but has renounced revolutionary Marxism and promised to rule as a centrist moderate and reconciler. His campaign uses pastel pink and John Lennon’s Give Peace a Chance anthem.
If THAT isn’t the MOTHER of all blogging sell-outs!
Abbott to buy Kos for $3.7 bln
Then I saw the rest of the headline:
…in cholesterol move
Still sort of relative, in a foul/sticky/need-meds-to-control-it kind of way.
That’s what this frankly vile person seems to be saying:
Pelosi cautioned that the number of Democratic House victories could be higher or lower and said her greatest concern is over the integrity of the count — from the reliability of electronic voting machines to her worries that Republicans will try to manipulate the outcome.
“That is the only variable in this,” Pelosi said. “Will we have an honest count?”
“If indeed it turns out the way that people expect it to turn out, the American people will have spoken, and they will have rejected the course of action the president is on.”
You get that? She’s saying that the only way the Democrats will lose is if Republicans cheat and steal the election; the possibility that, oh, I don’t know, say people don’t actually vote for them never enters her mind. Is this the person we want 2 heartbeats away from the Presidency? Someone who will accept that “the American People have spoken” only if they say what she wants to hear? Someone who publically casts doubt on the integrity of our electoral process before it begins?
“That is the only variable in this,” Pelosi said. “Will we have an honest count?”
Madame, you disgust me.
Shown to “wild applause” at the Army-Air Force game.
I mean, we’re willing to let it go ~ he’s a horse’s ass and that’s all there is ~ but dang if Newsweek doesn’t do four pages on him. Are we ‘piling on’ if we discuss it? I’m torn. He’s such a DOPE. Let it DIE, Johnny Boy. But, oh no. Even on his OWN website, the 
keeps going like the Energizer Bunny of Bad News. Good Lord ~ when you can cause even Dead Eye-Dick Cheney to slip in the Freudian manner…wait…maybe that was a botched joke?
I don’t know what to believe anymore.
Good.
Angry, shaking and defiant, Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death this morning by hanging for ordering the massacre of Iraqi civilians.
…He had refused to stand for the verdict and had to be lifted to his feet by two court bailiffs.
“Make him stand,” the judge ordered as the former president stayed seated.
This is an important step for them to clear the decks and try and rebuild. I honestly don’t know at this point if it is possible for Iraq to have anything close to a Western-style democaracy; I certainly despair that it isn’t. But it would be completely impossible with him around, and the lesson needs to be given that people like him, and those that support him, will pay.
He had wanted to face a firing squad – that request was refused.
Even better.
Oh, here’s a shock:
Amnesty International described the trial as a “shabby affair marred by serious flaws”.
The Iraqis conducted it, gave him more than ample chances to defend himself and completely disrupt the proceedings. I’m not sure what Amnesty’s problem is. Well, I’m sure I can guess, though.
I have to say that this is good, too:
Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi told reporters that the Anfal trial now in progress for Saddam and others alleged role in gassing and killing Kurds would continue while the appeals process is underway. But if the appellate judges uphold the death sentence, the Anfal proceedings and other cases would be halted and Saddam hanged.
…A court official told The Associated Press that the appeals process was likely to take three to four weeks once the formal paperwork was submitted.
The last thing needed is some endless appeal process; thank god they haven’t learned that from our lawyers…yet.
…hold no water for LAW BREAKERS and FISH THIEVES.
At one otherwise uneventful stop in the closing stages of America’s mid-term elections this week, George Allen, who is running for a second term as Virginia’s Republican senator, had visibly to rein in his temper.
Having been asked about two alleged criminal records from his student days – fishing without a licence and speeding… “I mean, getting a citation for fishing without a licence when I was a student – now that’s an important issue.”
Yup. That’s what they all say when they’re trollin’ for votes.
Sorry, son, that don’t fly here. Hook ’em, Danno.
…SURPRISE!
Unemployment rate lowest in nearly 5-1/2 years
The U.S. unemployment rate dropped to a 5-1/2 year low in October as 92,000 jobs were added and hiring in the two prior months was revised up, the government said on Friday, leading financial markets to slash bets on interest-rate cuts.
The stronger-than-expected job picture sent shock waves through financial markets. Bond prices fell while stock futures and the dollar moved higher on the signs of unexpectedly robust U.S. hiring.
The Labor Department said 92,000 jobs were added in October, less than the 125,000 that Wall Street analysts had forecast, but it said hiring in September and August was far stronger than it first estimated.
It revised up September’s job-creation total to 148,000, or nearly three times the 51,000 it reported a month ago, and said there were 230,000 new jobs in August instead of 188,000.
The unemployment rate fell in October to 4.4 percent from 4.6 percent in September. It was the lowest unemployment rate since 4.3 percent in May 2001.
Well, sh*t. Nobody wants news like that.
Clinton officials ‘shocked‘ by failure of ‘nuanced plan‘!!!
Mullah Merlin heads to super secret bunker where he’s building a secret nuclear device that he got super secret plans from Clinton administration secret sources who secretly botched the super secret way to build one or so they super secretly thought, having a super opinion of their mental superiority. – Photo © M. Albright/al-Reuters
Documents prove Saddam one year away from NUKE…before he wasn’t.
NOTE: Saddam files’ FAKE pictures of al-Zarqawi and FAKE al-Qaeda documents ARE STILL FAKEDY FAKE FAKE FAKE and planted by al-KarlRovia agents of Mordor. Ignore those.
And look who showed up!
It’ll be a blast!
Yup.
UPDATE: Wow. This shot as of 7:50 a.m.CST. They’ve dropped the “look at all sides” line.
EDITOR’S NOTE: A warm Swill Welcome to Gateway Pundit and Hot Air readers. Thanks for stopping by. A note concerning our post:
I’d like to add that I linked to the Air America Op-Ed piece when I first found this at about 4:45 a.m.CST. From the verbiage, you weren’t quite as surprised when you wound up on an Op-Ed, because it DOES say “all sides blahblahblah look”.
But by the second screenshot (three hours later), THAT LINE IS GONE, as well as the question changed ~ from “MAYBE He Was Right?” to “Could He Have Been Right?“. That first sentence had also been rephrased and made an interrogative.
My jaded eyes tell me ABC is shilling for Air America (you’ll notice the “Townhall” link is labeled “OPINION”) ~ using the Op-Ed subterfuge for a “news” headline they intend to be read EXACTLY as it does.
Huge amounts of a red wine extract seemed to help obese mice eat a high-fat diet and still live a long and healthy life, suggests a new study that some specialists are calling “landmark” research.
…”These fat old mice can perform as well on this skill test as young lean mice,” Dr. Sinclair said.
Drink up, Shriners!
…in Georgia.
Russia’s state-controlled natural gas monopoly said Thursday that it would more than double the price it charges Georgia, further heightening tensions between the ex-Soviet neighbors.
OAO Gazprom said in a statement that it will charge $230 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas, compared with the $110 that it charges now.
Tensions rose between the two countries after Georgia briefly detained four purported Russian spies in late September. Moscow responded with a transport and postal blockade on Georgia and a crackdown on Georgian migrants living in Russia, whose financial remittances help sustain their homeland’s economy.
…Relations between Moscow and Tbilisi have steadily deteriorated since the 2004 election of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, who has sought to take the Caucasus nation out of the Russian orbit, bolster ties with the West and join NATO in 2008.
…and even the AP is going after him.
Kerry’s ’72 Army comments mirror latest
During a Vietnam-era run for Congress three decades ago, John Kerry said he opposed a volunteer Army because it would be dominated by the underprivileged, be less accountable and be more prone to “the perpetuation of war crimes.”
…The Associated Press was alerted to the historical comments by a former law enforcement official who monitored 1970s anti-war activities
…In 1972, as he ran for the House, he was less apologetic in his comments about the merits of a volunteer army. He declared in the questionnaire that he opposed the draft but considered a volunteer army “a greater anathema.”
“I am convinced a volunteer army would be an army of the poor and the black and the brown,” Kerry wrote. “We must not repeat the travesty of the inequities present during Vietnam. I also fear having a professional army that views the perpetuation of war crimes as simply ‘doing its job.’
Don’t ya just hate guys that botch the same old joke over and over?
…is this?
…House Democrats have had to deal with investigations of their own, involving Reps. William J. Jefferson (La.), Alan B. Mollohan (W.Va.) and Jane Harman (Calif.), but none of those cases have put Democratic seats in jeopardy.
In one case, I guess it depends on what your definition of “cold hard cash” is.
…FOX-8 anchor John Snell, who zeroed in on the issues that have emerged as each candidates’ respective Achilles’ heel.
Snell immediately cut to the chase, pressing eight-term incumbent U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, on the central issue of the campaign: the $90,000 in marked bills that FBI agents said they found last year in his freezer on Capitol Hill.
“I don’t want to pick on you about it,” Snell said. “But let’s face it, that’s why we’re here.”
…”I’ve not told you that I had $90,000 in the freezer,” Jefferson said. “I ask the voters to trust me based on my long history with them and based on the fact that these are unproven allegations and based on the fact that it’s been a long time that (prosecutors have) been fooling around with it.”
I can feel the muskrat love.
Thrust into the midst of the midterm election campaign, Sen. John Kerry apologized Wednesday to “any service member, family member or American who was offended” by remarks deemed by Republicans and Democrats alike to be insulting to U.S. forces in Iraq.
Dick has a problem with rodents…
Vice President Dick Cheney said in remarks prepared for a campaign appearance in Montana. “I guess we didn’t get the nuance. He was for the joke before he was against it.”
…being a hunter and all. Watch for the left to come out swinging because Dick is insensitive.
I think Dick’s droll.
If they send his a$$ back to Ethiopia when he walks out of prison, even better.
Jury convicts father in genital mutilation of girl
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in the first case of its kind in U.S.
Just one more, honest to God. And then I quit. Unless he says something again.
After all, Kerry is an awful politician, a human toothache with the charisma of a 19th-century Oxford Latin tutor.
I’m DYing here. In his piece Jonah Goldberg also points out something I noted in the comments at LaShawn Barber’s (who, by the by, thinks Kerry just pulled a …Kerry.). (Which is, admittedly, what we live for.) To the cries of ‘over reaction’, ‘piling on’, ‘misinterpretation’, ‘Rush is MEAN to Michael J. Fox‘, ‘blahblahblah’, I chose a short trip down Memory Lane.
HEY!! You forgot the “Republicans (FOLEY) protect (FOLEY) homoSEXual (HOMOHOMOHOMO) child (FOLEY) molestors (FOLEY)!! They’re the Grand Old Perverts! (Did I mention FOLEY?)”
I don’t think having a cow at the horse’s ass is doing anybody any harm even close to the DEMO-goguery we’ve been treated to lately.
Politics | tree hugging sister | 
November 9, 2006 6:59 am | 
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