Let Me Apologize in Advance to Those Who Might Be Offended By My Words

Unions can f*ck off.

There. I said it.

They’ve Their Congressional butt boys’ve f*cked us over enough in the past year alone for several lifetimes. And it looks like they’ve scored what little’s left in the pot.

Unions Tentatively Strike A Deal Regarding Excise Tax

Unions tentatively struck a deal Tuesday to exempt collectively bargained healthcare plans from a tax on high-cost plans expected to be used to help raise revenue for the healthcare overhaul.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern and United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger met with House Speaker Pelosi Tuesday, a day after labor leaders met at the White House to express their opposition to the excise tax.

Makes Ben Nelson look like a rank amateur and they’re ALL pretty rank.

Well, Here’s A Shot Across The Teacher’s Union’s Bow

I have to say this is a feisty pick

Bret Schundler, a former Jersey City Mayor and gubernatorial candidate who attracted national attention for his support of school vouchers and charter schools, is Gov.-elect Christopher Christie’s choice to head the state Department of Education.

Christie waged a public battle against the state teachers unions during his campaign for governor, and the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) spent a huge amount of money in a bid to re-elect Gov. Jon Corzine. Christie has continued to toss barbs at the teachers union since Election Day.

The Dept. of Education certainly needs to be cut back; it will be…interesting…to see the fireworks this sets off.

“I’m Your Wicked Uncle Ernie”

I’m glad you won’t see or hear me
As I fiddle about
Fiddling about

Nah. Eventually you’ll get seen. They catch creepy “uncles” all the time now.

Sex sting in Poconos nets former chief U.N. weapons inspector

A former chief United Nations weapons inspector is accused of contacting what he thought was a 15-year-old girl in an Internet chat room, engaging in a sexual conversation and showing himself masturbating on a Web camera.

Scott Ritter of Delmar, N.Y., who served as chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991-98 and who was an outspoken critic of the second Bush administration in the run-up to the war in Iraq, is accused of contacting what turned out to be a Barrett Township police officer posing undercover as a teen girl.

As Jonah Goldberg points out, this isn’t Creepy Uncle Scott’s first bow job…

If memory serves, a lot of Scott Ritter’s fans used to get very angry with anyone who ever mentioned his sex crime history because the cases were sealed and that should be respected.

Hopefully they’ll take away his rosin for good this time.

Stella!!!!!!!!

Look, I can handle terrorism and high unemployment, but this, this is just too much

Belgian beer-drinkers hoping to forget the recession and freezing weather weather over a few pints of their favourite brew are in for a shock.

Shops are set to run out of the best-selling Stella Artois, Leffe and Jupiler brands in the coming days, as workers blockade three breweries in Belgium owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Call out the Cossacks! Crush this outbreak of Bolshevism!

National Health Care In Action

Not that there are ‘quotas’ or ‘rationed care’ or any such right-wing nonsense, buuuuuuut

Some orthopaedic operations have been postponed due to the high number of people needing treatment after falling on ice, Belfast Health Trust has said.

In Belfast’s Musgrave Park Hospital, 40 patients have had orthopaedic surgery on knees and hips postponed.

Really, it will work so much better here. The people who run the TSA could not possibly screw up the US Health system.

Trust them.

It Was the Best of Times, It Was…Always Hotter Than Hell in Africa?

Your tax dollars at work.

…Indeed, the two sets of maps are so incongruous that we must have separate climatic histories.

Momma Pajama Rolled Out of Bed

“And went down to the po-lice station…”

Let’s play “guess the party“, shall we…?

…[blanketyblank] News reported that Governor [blanketyblank]’s fifteen year-old son was arrested for possession of a stolen credit card after police officers caught him shooting dice near his [blanketyblank] school. When officers searched his belongings, they found a credit card in someone else’s name, traced it, and determined it was stolen. BNO News has not yet been able to independently confirm this.

Singing me ‘n Julio down by the schoolyard.
(You said “Republican” first, didn’t you???)

Congratulations Are Again in Order!

To the proud mum and dad of Master Scott Joseph McCabe, who joined us at an un-holy early 5:31AM this morning and weighed in at a robust 7lb 3oz.

Oh, well done, Mr. and Mrs. Tainted Bill!

Haiti

Keep those poor poor people in your prayers. I was in Haiti in, oh, 1979 or so I guess it was, and the construction I saw then is still pretty much what it is (was) now: basically stacked cinder blocks and concrete, completely un-reinforced and completely unable to survive any type of sideways motion.

UPDATE: Here’s the link for Catholic Relief Services. Please give what you can.

UPDATE the Second: Here are some other places you can help, via Gregor.

UPDATE the Third: Here’s World Vision.

Graduation Congratulations Are in Order

Even if it means another lawyer in the world…

…at least it’s OUR lawyer Skyler.

Way to go, you!

The System Worked

…as well as it ever has

PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ?The Centers for Disease Control said a passenger with tuberculosis has been detained after boarding a flight from Philadelphia to San Francisco despite being on a “do-not-board” list.

CDC officials said the passenger was detained and taken to a local hospital after a U.S. Airways flight arrived in San Francisco Saturday night.

The unidentified male passenger was apparently placed on a do-not-board list submitted to the TSA and CDC on January 8, 2010.

So the guy just casually sauntered in and hopped on the plane; there must not have been anything suspicious about him

Investigators are trying to determine how the noticeably ill man made it through security checkpoints and onto the flight.

He probably bribed his way with Twinkies.

Yeah, let’s give them more money and let them enact more restrictions on us.

Fantasy Wish Of The Day

Incoming Gov. Christie talking about Corzine’s last few days

TRENTON – Gov.-elect Chris Christie today lashed out at outgoing Gov. Jon Corzine and the Joint Budget Oversight Committee (JBOC) over the appropriation of $44 million in special municipal aid to distressed cities.

“How do I feel about it? I think it’s an outrage,” said Christie, who said that Corzine was using “Wall Street math” by initially including the $44 million in budget savings. “If that’s the parting gift, we could have done with out it.”

“This is exactly the type of Wall Street fiscal shenanigans that got us in the spot we’re in right now. Seriously, there’s eight days left. Can he please keep his hand out of the cash register for the next eight days?”

Short answer?

No.

Our Great Garden State Nightmare

Is about to end

Gov. Jon Corzine will leave office with an upside-down 33%-58% approval rating, and Gov.-elect Christopher Christie starts with a 45%-23% approval rating, according to a Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind™ poll released this morning.

You had me at “leave office”.

Besides the “Not the ‘Kennedy Seat'” Money Quote

…Scott Brown says the one thing I’ve been saying, but haven’t heard a peep about ANYWHERE else:

“Military people, if you’re a veteran, you’ll have effects…you’ll have cuts in TriCare.”

I do NOT understand why Republicans aren’t hammering THAT home.

Iranian Nuke Scientist Vaporized Via Vespa

Zionists blamed

Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, a leading Iranian nuclear scientist, has been killed in a bomb blast in Tehran.

He was killed as he left for work when a booby-trapped motorbike exploded in the street outside his home in Qeytariyeh, one of the capital’s northern suburbs.

State television blamed “Zionists and American agents”. No specific motive was suggested for the attack, though it described Dr Ali-Mohammadi him as a “staunch supporter of the Islamic Revolution”.

I’m sure it had to be either Zionists or American Agents, right? I mean, who ever heard of Religion Of Peacers murdering each other?

With booby trapped vehicles.

You Make The Rockin’ World Go ‘Round

And as an added bonus you fat bottomed girls are also healthier

Carrying extra weight on your hips, bum and thighs is good for your health, protecting against heart and metabolic problems, UK experts have said.

Hip fat mops up harmful fatty acids and contains an anti-inflammatory agent that stops arteries clogging, they say.

Big behinds are preferable to extra fat around the waistline, which gives no such protection, the Oxford team said.

Sometimes science is just awesome.

Happy Days Are Here Again

Or maybe they’re not

The labour force contracted by 661,000. This did not show up in the headline jobless rate because so many Americans dropped out of the system. The broad U6 category of unemployment rose to 17.3pc. That is the one that matters.

Wall Street rallied. Bulls hope that weak jobs data will postpone monetary tightening: a silver lining in every catastrophe, or perhaps a further exhibit of market infantilism.

Maybe I hang out with a bunch of curmudgeons, but no one that I talk to thinks our economy has seen the bottom. We’re all terrified about keeping our jobs and homes, and know many folks who have been out of work for many, many months. The stock market’s recovery sure hasn’t been based on our spending.

Almost 8 in the Morning Here

…and still 19°.

Harry Reid

The hypocrisy is mind-boggling.

As Insta says, we’re in the best of hands.

Stunning Pre-Election Corruption In Massachusetts

Via HotAir, it’s gotten to where they’re openly not even pretending to follow the rules or electoral results

It looks like the fix is in on national health-care reform – and it all may unfold on Beacon Hill.

At a business forum in Boston today, interim Sen. Paul Kirk predicted that Congress would pass a health-care reform bill this month.

…“Absolutely,” Kirk said, when asked if he’d vote for the bill, even if Brown captures the seat. “It would be my responsibility as United States senator, representing the people and understanding Senator Kennedy’s agenda. . . . I think you’re asking me a hypothetical question but I’d be pleased to vote for the bill.”

You know, last time I checked, Kennedy was dead. The only “people” Kirk represents are the Democratic Machine apparatchiks who changed the law to put him in office.

Now, look, despite all the excitement and hype of late I still think it’s going to be very tough for Brown to win on the 19th. But if he does somehow then he is the Senator immediately; Kirk must go.

But not in a world run by Democrats.

Today, a spokesman for Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin, who is overseeing the election but did not respond to a call seeking comment, said certification of the Jan. 19 election by the Governor’s Council would take a while.

Because, of course, he is a Republican.

Since the U.S. Senate doesn’t meet again in formal session until Jan. 20, Bay State voters will have made their decision before a vote on health-care reform could be held. But Kirk and Galvin’s office said today a victorious Brown would be left in limbo.

Well, only if one defines “limbo” as “being screwed by a corrupt political machine so they can advance their agenda despite the clear and recent evidence of the People’s aversion to it.”

Now, just for fun’s sake, what if, and I’m only being hypothetical here, what if, say, there was, oh, say an important piece of Republican legislation that the Democrats desperately needed every vote for? Obviously, they would still follow their careful path to “certify” the election, right?

In contrast, Rep. Niki Tsongas (D-Lowell) was sworn in at the U.S. House of Representatives on Oct. 18, 2007, just two days after winning a special election to replace Martin Meehan. In that case, Tsongas made it to Capitol Hill in time to override a presidential veto of the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Total, complete scumbags.

As Insta says, Tar and Feathers.

This Morning’s Happy

…HOPEY headline:

U.S. May Post First Monthly Job Gain in 2 Years

Some economists think the nation will break a 23-month streak of job cuts and add to employment when the government issues the December labor report Friday.

A majority of economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters still think the economy shed jobs in December — a modest loss of 8,000.

Followed swiftly by ~ SURPRISE!!!! ~ the “nothing’s changed” you can actually believe in:

Employers unexpectedly cut jobs in December

U.S. employers unexpectedly cut 85,000 jobs in December, cooling optimism on the labor market’s recovery and keeping pressure on President Barack Obama to find ways to spur job growth.

I’m sure the White House had all sorts of triumphant, “‘told ya so” crowing planned…and now they’ll just have to eat it, feathers and all.

Times 10.

Welcome to Florida

…and the weekend.

Saturday
Sunny. Highs in the mid 40s. North winds 10 to 20 mph. Lowest wind chill readings 4 below to 6 above zero in the morning.

Important NJ Senate Vote

Sure, it’s the Gay Marriage vote which is getting all the headlines, but there is a far more important issue they are considering

TRENTON — The New Jersey Senate has postponed a vote on a bill allowing some illegal immigrants to pay lower in-state tuition at the state’s colleges and universities.

The Senate is now expected to vote on the bill on Monday.

Outgoing Gov. Jon Corzine supports the measure, which would apply to illegal immigrants who meet certain residency criteria. Gov.-elect Chris Christie opposes it.

Can someone please explain to me Why The Hell illegal immigrants should pay the in-state rate on tuition?

In other words, why you and I and all the legal immigrants who had the nerve to actually follow the law and play by the rules should have to underwrite yet another give away to those who broke the law?

Insane.

Heck, why no let them vote too?

Oh wait…

I Had This Horrible Dream

I was being chased by this cackling succubus

there was no escape…

Aw, Jeez ~ I LOVE This Guy

Via Instapundit, John Lehman lets fly with some…inconvenient observations.

“…President Obama continues to totally ignore one of the important thrusts of our 9/11 recommendations, which is that you have to approach counterterrorism as a multiagency intelligence issue, and not as a law-enforcement issue. He’s made a lot of commission’s members angry for dismissing our report and ignoring key recommendations.” Obama, he adds, has taken a “lawyer-like, politically-correct approach” to national security issues like terrorist watchlists and no-fly lists. “You got to blame the president for enforcing the politically-correct and legalistic policies that led to these failures.”

Of course, that plain speaking is part of why I **heart** John Lehman. The BIGGEST reason is… he’s an A-6 B/N. (Bombadier navigator)

When he made ‘official’ trips to the West Coast, he very often flew in the right seat of an Intruder, vice taking a private jet. So he had a smaller carbon footprint AND kept his reserve flight hours up to snuff. But the absolute COOLEST thing about him was how he treated those of us who’d catch his plane at whatever hours he got in or, likewise, stood there to launch him when it was time to go back.

He ALWAYS tried to say “hello” and/or “thanks” to each Marine on the line, in maintenance control or flight equipment. And, to make up for his “inconveniencing” the crew, he always ordered pizza for us if it was possible. Webb was a pistol, but hands down ~ Lehman was quite the coolest SecNav eh-vah.