Author: kingsjester

64 year old Christian Conservative husband, father, and grandfather who has been writing since April 2010.

Dems: Using Veterans as a Political Tool

On By kingsjesterIn Politics2 Comments

Desperate Democrats are trying to hold down Republican gains in this November’s elections by questioning their loyalty to the nation’s veterans. 

Though taxes, spending and the economic slump have been the focus during this election year, several Republicans have piggy-backed on the small-government themes made popular by the Tea Party movement by suggesting veterans be allowed to seek a portion of their medical care through the private system. In some cases, they’ve hinted at it; in others, they’ve outright proposed it. 

Democrats are refusing to campaign on their disastrous destruction of the American Health Care system, which will eventually provide millions in government subsidies.  However, they’ve been more eager to label any Republican as heartless and irresponsible for proposing plans to “privatize” the veterans health system, if not the Department of Veterans Affairs altogether. 

The issue is front-and-center in the 17th Congressional District race in Texas, where Rep. Chet Edwards, a Democrat, is battling Republican challenger Bill Flores. 

Edwards is hammering Flores over a comment he made during a debate in January in which he rightfully said veterans would be “much better off” if they could see doctors in the private system and then have the government pay for it. 

Flores said:

Typically the care in the private sector is better than the government sector.  So they need to go into the private system. 

Flores is not backing off from his proposal. His website explains that under his plan, veterans would have a choice. The campaign said the private option could be useful for veterans who don’t live near a VA facility. 

But in August Edwards convened a press conference with local Texas veterans where he called Flores’ idea a “radical and dangerous plan that would destroy the VA health care system as we know it.” 

Edwards has issued a series of ads about the issue, including one in which Gen. Paul Funk, the former Fort Hood commander, says Flores’ plan to “privatize” veterans’ care “would hurt our nation’s veterans badly.” 

Edwards also had another ad featuring the Disabled American Veterans, an advocacy group that ludicrously claims the private sector would not want to treat ill and disabled veterans, and that lawmakers should concentrate instead on improving the VA medical system. 

In this political war, Flores has pulled out a big gun, Arizona Sen. John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, to join the fight. McCain, in an ad, called Flores a “patriotic American who’s proven he’s devoted to taking care of our veterans.” He said Flores’ proposal mirrored his. 

In Delaware, Democratic Senate nominee and former(?) bearded Marxist Chris Coons has seized on a paraphrased section of a New York Times story from last month in which Republican Christine O’Donnell said she would make health care vouchers for veterans a priority if elected. 

According to Coons, that’s a “terrible idea”:

Her voucher scheme would seriously undercut the health care provided to our veterans.

O’Donnell’s campaign held an event Friday in which she laid out her plan for veterans health benefits.

The Veterans Affairs Department budget in 2010 was $114 billion, with about $58 billion going to mandatory benefits and about $47 billion going to medical programs. Obama touted legislation in October 2009 announcing that the VA budget had increased by its highest amount in 30 years. The 2011 budget request is for $125 billion.

But, hey, we all know how efficient Government-run programs are, don’t we?  Well, maybe not:

There is a long history of  backlogs in the treatment of veterans at the VA hospitals as well as sub-standard conditions at several vets hospitals. Most recently, the VA sent letters to 1,800 veterans warning them of possible exposure to HIV during dental work at a St. Louis-area hospital.

Despite calls for reforms on several fronts, in the face of criticism from their Democratic opponents, some GOP candidates have backed down from their initial ideas for changing the system. 

Nevada Senate GOP nominee Sharron Angle suggested in a May radio interview that Veterans Affairs edge toward a private program. In the interview, she explained how her father was paying hundreds every month on prescription drugs that he couldn’t get through the VA. Asked if the government should cover those things, she said:

No, not if you’re working toward a privatized system. 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has since made that a centerpiece in his campaign’s effort to cast Angle as the “extreme “candidate.   Self-realization does not seem to be one of Harry’s strong points.

He and his aides hammered Angle for months on the comment, and in an ad last month the Reid campaign accused Angle of wanting to “end the VA as we know it.” 

After steering away from the issue, Angle’s campaign directly responded to Reid’s ad, calling it “desperate and dishonest.” 

According to her campaign:

Never has Sharron Angle called for privatizing Veterans Affairs and never has Sharron called for the end of Veterans Affairs.

A similar situation happened in the Colorado Senate race between Tea Party favorite Ken Buck and incumbent Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet. The liberal website ThinkProgress (think Soros)  last month released a video clip of Buck saying a private sector veterans hospital would “be better run” than a public one. In the same clip, he noted that the funding for that would “have to come from the public sector and not from the injured veteran’s pocket.” 

Bennet subsequently pulled together a group of Colorado veterans to defend the current system. 

But Buck spokesman Owen Loftus told FoxNews.com Thursday that Buck “does not want to privatize veterans’ health care.” 

Loftus would not comment on what specific changes to the system Buck might consider, but said the GOP nominee just wants to look at “everything” to see how it can be improved. 

Loftus said:

He does want to make it better for veterans. They should not have to wait in long lines.

The Democrats have a problem.  It concerns people in glass houses.  Remember?

March 10, 2009 – Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki confirmed Tuesday that the Obama administration is considering a controversial plan to make veterans pay for treatment of service-related injuries with private insurance.

But the proposal would be “dead on arrival” if it’s sent to Congress, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, said.

Murray used that blunt terminology when she told Shinseki that the idea would not be acceptable and would be rejected if formally proposed. Her remarks came during a hearing before the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs about the 2010 budget.

No official proposal to create such a program has been announced publicly, but veterans groups wrote a pre-emptive letter last week to President Obama voicing their opposition to the idea after hearing the plan was under consideration.

The groups also cited an increase in “third-party collections” estimated in the 2010 budget proposal — something they said could be achieved only if the Veterans Administration started billing for service-related injuries.

Asked about the proposal, Shinseki said it was under “consideration.”

“A final decision hasn’t been made yet,” he said.

 

The Democrats have a history of using our Best and Brightest as political tools.  The Clintons used them as banquet staff at White House Events, having Marines in dress blues carry trays of munchies.   For the “smartest people in the room” to be feigning concern for our veterans in the ninth hour before the biggest political massacre in American history is disingenuous and laughable.  The men and women that they are using as political tools sacrificed their health and well-being to keep us all safe and free.  They deserve the finest medical help that we can give them.  Public or private.

 

Obama Doubles Down on Hypocrisy

On By kingsjesterIn Politics5 Comments

President Barack Hussein Obama used two campaign appearances on Thursday to attack the Republican party over the private money that has filtered into their coffers for the November election campaign, suggesting that some of it came from abroad, and urging what remains of the Democratic Party faithful to symbolically drown out the cash with their “millions of voices.”

In a not-so-veiled reference to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, President Obama complained that “groups that receive foreign money are spending huge sums to influence American elections, and they won’t tell you where the money for their ads come from.” Mr. Obama mentioned a report by the Center for American Progress, a liberal research group, which this week asserted in a blog that the Chamber of Commerce may be mingling money from foreign contributors with its domestic receipts as it pays for advertisements and other political activities. That could be illegal, and the Chamber has vehemently denied it.

Hold it right there, Scooter.   Who in the world are you to talk about shady campaign contributions? 

From americanthinker.com:

It is well-known that George Soros, the hedge-fund manager, major Democratic Party donor and anti-Israel crusader, has been a generous contributor to Barack Obama. But relatively few people realize that a loophole in McCain-Feingold allowed Soros his family members to be particularly generous in support of Obama’s Senatorial campaign.
 
Because Obama was running against Blair Hull in the primary and then Jack Ryan in the general (both multi-millionaires), Obama could, and did, receive especially large donationsfrom individuals, to so-called “millionaires exception.” Normally individuals are limited to giving $2300 to candidates in federal elections, but when candidates are running against millionaires, these limits are lifted and candidates are allowed to receive up to $12,000 from a single individual. Soros and his family gave Barack Obama $60,000. This does not include money that Soros was able to funnel to so-called 527 groups (Moveon.org, for example) [the Center for American Progress, run by John Podesta, for another] that have also been politically active; nor does it include money that Soros was able to raise from tapping a network of friends, business associates, and employees.

And Scooter, don’t forget about those small anonymous donations from your supporters in the Middle East.

Hey, Captain Ahab, what is your obsession with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce?  Since you ascended to the throne of The Regime, your attacks against this country’s premier business organization have been unrelenting. 

Gosh, it’s almost like you don’t like capitalism or sumpin’.  Guess what, Scooter?  You picked the wrong Americans to pick on.

Thomas Donohue, the chamber’s president and chief executive, announced on Thursday that the nation’s largest business lobby is adding to its staff so it can fight health care and financial regulation reform in court.

Donohue said in remarks prepared to be delivered in Des Moines, Iowa:

Litigation is one of our most powerful tools for making sure that federal agencies follow the law and are held accountable.

Donohue used the opportunity to speak about the danger of the accomplishments of Obama and Congress, saying over-regulation “will silence the heartbeat of our economy.”

Also, on Thursday, the Chamber unveiled a new publicity drive with a strong anti-regulation theme, designed to complement its legal fight to blunt regulation.

The chamber’s fight through litigation has already produced some results. Earlier this week the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission put on hold their rule giving shareholders more power to influence corporate boards, after the chamber filed a lawsuit over the rule.
 
Back to our first anti-American President…

His remarks were made at campaign events first in Bowie, Md., where he tried to convince about 4,000 students and African-Americans to support Gov. Martin O’Malley, and then later in Chicago, where he appeared for Alexi Giannoulias, the youthful state treasurer who is locked in a close fight with Representative Mark Steven Kirk, a Republican, for Mr. Obama’s old Senate seat.

In Chicago, Scooter would not mention Mr. Kirk’s name. He became, instead, “Alexi’s opponent”, but he spent much of his time attacking the Republican Party for its ties to big business.

The combined Chicago events, organizers said, will raise more than $750,000, half for Mr. Giannoulias and half for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

By the way, while in Chicago, Obama avoided his former Chief of Staff, Rahm Emmanuel, like Rambo was an ex-wife.

Scooter said that the Republican Party’s “big idea,”  was to give a tax cut to the wealthiest Americans:

At a time when education is the biggest predictor of this country’s success.  They think it’s more important to provide these tax breaks.

In Bowie, in a blatantly hypocritical statement, Obama characterized the outside campaign financing as not “just a threat to Democrats.”

He added:

All Republicans should be concerned. Independents should be concerned. This is a threat to our democracy. The American people deserve to know who’s trying to sway their elections.

They certainly do, Scooter.

White House officials and Obama’s Democratic backers have been taking aim at the Chamber of Commerce; Karl Rove, President George W. Bush’s political adviser; and independent groups that have been spending to elect Republicans in November.

The administration’s hypocrisy continued:

David Plouffe, Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, had the audacity or cluelessness, take your pick, to tell reporters in Washington that such groups “are becoming the central financial actors in the 2010 election.” He called the flood of money a “hijacking of our democracy.”

Scooter and his minions are desperately trying to fire up his Democratic base in the last three weeks before the November elections. Painfully aware of his poll numbers, he has been devoting a lot of his campaigning to friendly audiences on college campuses, like the historically black Bowie State University, and to fund-raisers, like the one back home in Chicago.

On the cusp of Midterm Elections that will be a Political Massacre of the Democrats, Obama was pleading with the people who put him in the White House two years ago not to come to their senses and abandon the Democratic Party, and more importantly, him, now:

Don’t make me look bad now.  I’m betting on you.

At the beginning of the Maryland rally, about three dozen people became ill and emergency aid had to be called in.

Prince George’s County Fire and EMS spokesman Mark Brady said that numerous ambulances were dispatched to the rally after people started fainting and became dizzy.

The problems may have been related to warmer temperatures Thursday. Brady says crowds at the rally were outside and packed shoulder to shoulder.

Two people were taken to the hospital, according to Brady. The others were treated at the scene. A triage area was set up inside the gymnasium at Bowie State.

That’s understandable. Most Americans get ill when Scooter speaks.

  

The Department of Justice Vs. America

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

The United States Department of Justice, a federal executive department established in 1870, has decided, under the administration of President Barack Hussein Obama (peace be unto him) and Attorney General Eric Holder, that the perceived civil rights of Terrorists and people who are living in our country illegally, are more important than the wishes of the American citizens who they are supposed to be protecting and serving, to the point of attempting to destroy American Sovereignty.

KJ, you’re off your meds again, aren’t you?  Not hardly.

Example #1 – The judge in the first civilian trial of a Guantanamo Bay detainee has barred the prosecution’s star witness Wednesday from testifying.  This action will forever cripple the government’s effort to build criminal cases with evidence obtained through harsh CIA interrogations overseas.

According to U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, the witness could not take the stand because investigators learned of his existence through coercive questioning of the defendant, terrorism suspect Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, pictured here, at a secret CIA camp.

In explaining his ruling, Kaplan wrote:

The court has not reached this conclusion lightly.  It is acutely aware of the perilous nature of the world in which we live. But the Constitution is the rock upon which our nation rests. We must follow it not when it is convenient, but when fear and danger beckon in a different direction.

The ruling stunned federal prosecutors, who asked for an immediate delay in the case while they decide whether to appeal. It also re-energized the debate over whether terrorism suspects captured overseas should be prosecuted in civilian courts and whether the American justice system is up to the task.

Ummm…call it a snap judgement…but I’d have to say…NO.

In spite of the judge’s ruling, Attorney General Eric Holder (whose former law firm defended Islamic Terrorists) said at a Washington news conference that he remains confident the Justice Department can successfully prosecute Ghailani in civilian court.  Of course.

The smackdown by the judge came during the final selection of jurors in the case against Ghailani, a Tanzanian charged in the 1998 bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa. The twin attacks killed 224 people, including a dozen Americans.

The man who was supposed to be the government’s star witness, Hussein Abebe, said he sold explosives to Ghailani that were used in the bombing. But defense lawyers said prosecutors never would have learned about Abebe if Ghailani had not divulged his identity while undergoing harsh interrogations at a secret overseas CIA camp in 2004.

Former Army judge advocate and now a civilian attorney,Michael Farkas, said the ruling shows why those backing military tribunals for Guantanamo detainees contend that “civilian criminal courts are no place for war criminals.” He said the military rules of evidence do not give defendants some of the protections they are afforded in the civilian justice system.

Per Farkas:

In a military tribunal, this witness would not have been precluded.

Ghailani was brought to New York for trial in 2009, as covertly as possible.   The subject of where to try Guantanamo Bay detainees got the attention of the American people when AG Holder announced last November that the 9/11 Islamic Terrorist mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others would be tried blocks from where the World Trade Center stood.  Holder later parsed his words, saying that he was reconsidering.

Ghailani is accused of being a bomb-maker, document forger and aide to Osama bin Laden. He is charged with conspiring in the 1998 bombings in Tanzania and Kenya.

Prosecutors had repeatedly said that Abebe’s testimony was vital to their case.

Judge Lewis shot a big hole in the DOJ’s plans by ruling that Abebe was identified and located as a “close and direct result of statements made by Ghailani” while in CIA custody. He noted the government had decided not to contest the details of Ghailani’s treatment while in CIA custody and had told the judge to assume that everything Ghailani said while in CIA custody was coerced.

Though many of the details about his treatment have been kept secret, the defense divulged during a pretrial hearing that he was subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques for 14 hours over five days. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the CIA used 10 harsh methods, including waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning, against select detainees.

That’s better treatment that the Americans murdered on 9/11/01 received.

The judge previously rejected a defense request to throw out the charges because of Ghailani’s treatment at the hands of the CIA.

Example #2 – Yesterday, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer  filed a motion stating her opposition to foreign countries’ participation in the U.S. Department of Justice’s challenge to SB 1070 at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and requesting the court’s permission to respond to their brief.

Mexico and 10 other foreign governments have asked the court to participate in the appeal by filing an amicus brief supporting the U.S. Department of Justice against the State of Arizona in the defense of SB 1070.  Mexico is joined by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, and Chile in opposing SB 1070 and enforcement measures that have been a part of U.S. federal law for decades.   

What is an amicus brief?

Literally, friend of the court. A person with strong interest in or views on the subject matter of an action, but not a party to the action, may petition the court for permission to file a brief, ostensibly on behalf of a party but actually to suggest a rationale consistent with its own views. Such amicus curiae briefs are commonly filed in appeals concerning matters of a broad public interest; e.g., civil rights cases. They may be filed by private persons or the government. In appeals to the U.S. courts of appeals, an amicus brief may be filed only if accompanied by written consent of all parties, or by leave of court granted on motion or at the request of the court, except that consent or leave shall not be required when the brief is presented by the United States or an officer or agency thereof.

The Arizona Legislature passed SB 1070 in order to insure that Arizona’s law enforcement officers cooperate in the enforcement of federal immigration laws and to adopt state crimes that mirror existing federal laws. These laws were passed by the Arizona Legislature to protect the citizens of Arizona from the federal government’s failure to enforce the immigration laws. 

Governor Brewer’s motion asserts that the opinions of foreign governments have no bearing on whether a state law providing for cooperative enforcement of federal immigration law in Arizona complies with the U. S. Constitution.  In addition, the foreign government’s brief raises issues that are unsupported by the facts in the record and have little relevance to the issues presented in this preliminary injunction appeal.

Go, Gov. Brewer, go!  This great civil servant summarizes thusly:

As do many citizens, I find it incredibly offensive that these foreign governments are using our court system to meddle in a domestic legal dispute and to oppose the rule of law.  What’s even more offensive is that this effort has been supported by the U.S. Department of Justice.  American sovereignty begins in the U.S. Constitution and at the border.  I am confident the Ninth Circuit will do the right thing and recognize foreign interference in U.S. legal proceedings and allow the State of Arizona to respond to their brief.

Sovereigntyis defined as supremacy of authority of rule as exercised by a sovereign or sovereign state (country) or complete independence and self-government.  America was established by our Founding Fathers as a sovereign nation, a Republic whose citizenry elect their peers to representative the citizens of this country and protect them from threats, foreign and domestic.  So far, this administration and the sycophantic Congress has been an epic failure in the performance of their duties.  That is why November 2nd, 2010 is so very important.  It is time to start taking our country back.

Obama/Limbaugh: Nail/Hammer

On By kingsjesterIn Politics9 Comments

The Father of Modern Talk Radio, Rush Limbaugh, has never been afraid of telling it like it is.  Yesterday, his expert tweaking of Liberal sensitivities reached a whole new level.

America’s lovable little fuzzball referred to President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) as a “jackass,” an “economic illiterate” and an “idiot, where capitalism is concerned.”

This hammer hits the nail on the head moment happened during a monologue on the president’s ill-informed position on extending the Bush tax cuts to all but the top two percent of wage earners.

According to Rush, Scooter is an “economic ignoramus” for not understanding how a “tax increase” on the wealthy won’t stimulate growth.

Reading excerpts from an AP article from Monday, El Rushbo pointed out Obama’s remarks at a meeting of his Economic Recovery Advisory Board that the wealthy would “take our ball and go home” if their tax cuts aren’t extended.

Rush then informed the president as to how the cow ate the cabbage:

Mr. Obama, our imam-child, they have already taken their trillion dollar ball home, and they’re sitting on it, you jackass.

Rush continued to take the former collegiate guest lecturer to school, saying that added degree of certainty would free business to spend some of the capital they’re holding onto and hire people

Extend the tax cut to everybody, and you’ll inspire confidence.  Which, once upon a time, we were told, was Obama’s top priority.

For not getting this, Rush said:

He’s a jackass.  He’s an economic illiterate.  He’s an economic ignoramus.  And that’s being charitable.

29 million people, including yours truly since 1988, listen to Cape Girardeau’s favorite son every weekday.

Rush is far from alone in his opinion of the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Desperately searching for jobs, coping with a lousy economy, and unimpressed by President Barack Hussein Obama, working-class whites are supporting Republican candidates in record numbers, turning a group long wary of Democrats into impetus for a Political Massacre on November 2nd, 2010.

An Associated Press-GfK poll shows whites without four-year college degrees preferring GOP candidates by twice the margin of the last two elections, when Democrats became the majority party in the House and Senate. September’s poll found these working class Americans favoring GOP hopefuls 58 percent to 36 percent, a whopping 22 percentage-point gap.

When Scooter won the presidency in 2008 (a looong time ago), they favored GOP congressional candidates by 11 percentage points, according to exit polls of voters. When Democrats won the House and Senate in 2006, the Republican edge was 9 percentage points.

Compared with whites who stayed longer in the education system, working-class whites tend to be older and more conservative.  These are groups that traditionally lean Republican and do not care for the tone-deaf president’s activist governing.  Their discernment is reinforced by a clueless economic policy producing a prolonged economic funk that has disproportionately hurt the working class and shown scant signs of improvement under Obama and Congress’ majority Democrats.

Even though they are used to trailing among working-class whites, Democrats can’t afford further defections from a group that accounts for about 4 in 10 voters nationally. Their GOP preference is in contrast to whites with college degrees, who the AP-GfK Poll shows are split evenly between the two parties’ candidates, and to minorities, who decisively back Democrats.

These working-class voters were called Reagan Democrats in the 1980s, when some in the North and Midwest who had previously voted for Democrats began supporting conservative Republicans. Scooter insulted these Americans during the 2008 presidential race, when he said some bitter small-town residents cling to guns and religion for solace. They preferred Hillary Rodham Clinton, his rival for the Democratic nomination, by 2-1 and in the general election backed Republican nominee John McCain by 18 points.

Jennifer Moore, 40, a school bus driver from Amherst, Va., said of Democrats:

They try to make everybody think the economy is better, and it isn’t.  Gas prices are going up, food is going up and people working for the minimum wage can’t make it.

In the AP-GfK poll, working-class whites were more likely than white college graduates to say their families are suffering financially and to have a relative who’s recently lost a job. They are less optimistic about the country’s economy and their own situations, pessimistic about the nation’s overall direction and more critical of how Democrats are handling the economy.

Lawrence Ramsey, 56, a warehouse manager in Winston-Salem, N.C., said:

Democrats are more apt to mess with the middle class and take our money.

 Working-class whites are more likely than better-educated whites to dislike Obama personally and are more negative about his leadership. Over half say he doesn’t understand ordinary Americans’ problems. They are also likelier to disapprove of Obama’s performance as president, including more than two-thirds who are unhappy with his stewardship of the economy.

According to Barbara Schwickrath, 64, a clothing store employee from Brooksville, Fla.:

The country hasn’t come up the way it should have under Obama.

Polls from around the country back up the fact that working-class Americans are fed up with Obama and the Democrats.   While a Marist Poll shows both of New York’s Democratic senators running strongly, one trails and the other is even among white working-class voters. Quinnipiac University polls show clear advantages with this group for GOP Senate candidates in Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

To try to con working-class Americans into believing that he actually cares, Obama has used nationally televised chats in people’s backyards to boast about his efforts to lift the economy. The Democratic-led Congress passed legislation with tax cuts and loans for small businesses before breaking for the election. On the campaign trail, Democrats whined about Connecticut GOP Senate candidate Linda McMahon’s refusal last week to rule out reducing the minimum wage to help ailing companies.

Democratic pollster Dave Beattie voiced his concern:

Democrats have to make it a choice between two individual candidates, not a referendum on do you like where things are or not, because no one likes where things are.

Republicans countered Scooter with their own message, unveiling a “Pledge to America” that broadly promised tax and spending cuts and criticizing congressional leaders for adjourning without voting to extend expiring income tax cuts.

A TV ad by Wisconsin Republican House contender Sean Duffy shows a man in an orange hardhat and safety vest getting flung off a rolling log into a pond. “Our working folks have been tossed aside,” Duffy says in the ad.

One glimmer of hope for Democrats is that 28 percent of working-class whites in the AP-GfK Poll say they may still switch candidates. (Yeah, and Scooter may walk through the doors of a Southern Baptist Church in Mississippi to attend Sunday morning service.)  Republicans say it’s too late.

The AP-GfK Poll was conducted Sept. 8-13 by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Corporate Communications and involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,000 randomly chosen adults. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4.2 percentage points. Included were interviews with 416 whites without college degrees, for whom the error margin is plus or minus 6.6 points.

Rush is exactly right.  And Americans’ lack of confidence in this president is cemented by moments like this:

 

Michelle Seeks Donations in Small Denominations

On By kingsjesterIn Politics6 Comments

First lady Michelle (ma belle) Obama is asking anyone who still supports her husband to pony up some Benjamins to help Democrats recreate the get-out-the-vote machine that helped deliver Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) the White House two years ago.

In an e-mail put out yesterday by the president’s political arm, Mee-shelle asked for donations as small as $3.  According to the Queen of the Regime, each dollar donated would be matched by another supporter as Democrats desperately scramble to keep Republicans from being elected as the majority of the House and possibly the Senate.

According to the America’s nutrition/fashion/travel expert:

The plan for this election is based on the lessons we learned two years ago.  Our organizers and volunteers are knocking on doors every weekend, making calls every night. Your support will help to fund this work.

Mrs. Obama, who enjoys high popularity (among some.  But, more of that later.) and is an in-demand guest among Progressive sycophants, also plans a call with activists Wednesday, hoping to re-ignite the enthusiasm that elevated an unknown freshman senator to the presidency.

Mee-shelle wrote in her e-mail that:

Now, Barack and I need you to help show that energy again.  Barack can’t keep making progress without strong allies in Congress.  And now the same people who’ve opposed us at every turn are targeting the folks who voted to make change real. They think we can’t do it again. But they’re wrong.

Michelle (ma belle) may have a problem raising funds from Americans.  I have some good news and some bad news for her:

The good news concerning her husband is that he is very popular among blacks, holding steady at 91%.

The bad news is every other American does not  like him that much.

The fact is, 28 days before his first midterm elections, the post-racial President’s approval ratings remain below 50%.

A new Gallup Poll released yesterday finds that Scooter’s approval rating for September was 45%, almost the same as August’s 44%. Obama has not been over the crucial 50% level in a single month so far this year.

Right now, you’re asking:  Well, KJ, since Obama’s name is not on any ballot Nov. 2, the percentage of Americans who like or dislike this putz on Oct. 1 of a midterm election year shouldn’t matter, should it?  Au contraire, mon Frere.

When a Presidents holds approval ratings below 50% at the time of the midterm elections, their party is dealt severe losses in its congressional membership, no matter how much explaining and blaming of the other party or previous president that the current president attempts in the campaign leading up to the midterms.  As you’ve always heard, the midterm elections are, in fact, a referendum on the sitting president.

Since Democrats currently hold substantial majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives, they have a lot more seats to lose. if the Dems lose 39 House and 10 Senate seats, the Republicans would gain control of both houses for the first time since they lost it in 2007.

Democrats (79%) and liberals (75%) still like Obama a lot.

However, according to Gallup, Liberals only comprise 20 % of the U.S. population.

After that little glimmer of hope, his approval percentage goes into the porcelain receptacle. Support among even young people is down: 57%. Hispanics: 55%. Moderates: 54%. Unmarrieds: 53%. Easterners: 52%. Women: 47%. Midwesterners and Westerners: 45%.

Men: 43%. Southerners: 41%. Independents: 40%. Marrieds: 39%. Seniors: 38%. Whites: 36%. Conservatives: 23%.

Amazingly, among Republicans Obama still manages to hold the support of 12%.

RINOS!

Given the tanking poll numbers of President Obama and Liberal politicians in general, the following information piqued my curiosity:

The Democratic National Committee reported yesterday that September was the committee’s best fund-raising month of the election cycle, beating the previous high total, in March, by a significant amount.

Brad Woodhouse, a committee spokesman, said that the organization had raised more than $16 million last month.  In March, the committee raised about $13.3 million.

The democrats proudly boasted that most of September’s money came from the kind of contributors who fueled the Obama for President campaign in 2008: low-dollar donors who gave online or sent small checks in the mail.

According to Woodhouse the trend demonstrated:

…the increased energy we’ve seen in the polls and among our grass-roots activists.

Hmmm.  I wonder, given the controversy over the anonymous donors to Obama’s Presidential Campaign, if these “activists” were the same ones that NYC Ground Zero Mosque Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf visited on his “Goodwill Tour” funded by Obama’s State Department?  Just curious.

Coming Soon to Our Shores

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics4 Comments

Imagine walking down the street in the heart of your city, and a car bomb suddenly explodes, or some idiot yelling “Allahu Akbar!” detonates the bomb that they have strapped to their waist, killing and wounding dozens of Americans.

Could it happen here?  Most assuredly.

 According to European intelligence officials, a group of Islamic Terrorists from the German city of Hamburg are believed to be at the heart of the recent al Qaeda plot to launch co-ordinated terrorist attacks against European cities,

The plan caused the U.S. State Department to issue a Europe-wide security advisory for Americans traveling in Europe.

Western intelligence officials learned about the plot when Ahmed Sidiqi, a German citizen of Afghan descent was arrested in Afghanistan in July and taken to the U.S. Airbase at Bagram for questioning. He has not been charged and  he is co-operating with intelligence sources in Germany.

In early 2009 Sidiqi and ten others left Hamburg for the tribal areas of Pakistan.  Most of them joined an Islamic Terrorist group fighting U.S. and coalition forces across the border in Afghanistan, according to German intelligence officials.

Sidiqi told American interrogators that at least one member of his travel group was to be a “foot-soldier” in the plot, with other members of the group helping to plan the attacks.

According to German officials, the Hamburg group were all recruited from the Taiba mosque in Hamburg. In the 1990s the same mosque — then called Al Quds – was attended by the lead hijacker in the 9/11 attacks, Mohammed Atta.

A friend of Atta from those days has emerged as a crucial figure in the new plot. Naamen Meziche, 40, a French citizen of Algerian descent, worked to persuade a number of young men praying at the Taiba mosque to fight Jihad. His whereabouts are unknown.  He is thought to be in the Afghan/Pakistan border area.

According to a European counter-terrorism official, Meziche had longstanding connections to al Qaeda dating back to the 1990s.  He used these connections once he arrived in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

The group got together late in 2008, and most of them had left for Pakistan before authorities had a chance to prevent them, despite constant surveillance of suspected terrorists at the Taiba mosque.

In November 2008, an assault on hotels and other “soft targets” in Mumbai by members of Lashkar e Tayyiba, a terror group based in Pakistan, killed more than 160 people.

The Imam of the Taiba mosque in Hamburg is Mamoun Darkazanli, a German businessman originally from Syria. The 9/11 Commission identified him as having links to al Qaeda financiers. In 2003 he was charged with membership of al Qaeda by Spanish authorities, but as a German citizen was not extradited. He faces no charges in Germany.

After the “success”of 9/11, the Taiba mosque became the place to go for al Qaeda sympathizers across Europe.

According to an official with German Intelligence:

They all wanted to come and pray where Mohammed Atta prayed. 

Hamburg authorities finally shut down the mosque a few weeks after Sidiqi was arrested.

Officials in Hamburg said that the decision to shut the mosque was a difficult one, because the presence in one place of so many militants made it easier to monitor their activities.  They had to close it because the mosque had become a recruiting center for jihadists across Europe.

Several militants now back in Germany who failed to make it to Pakistan’s tribal areas are of continuing concern to German intelligence services, who have kept them under observation.

According to another German Intelligence official:

Their greatest enemy is the United States.

Well, duh.

A recent report by Hamburg’s intelligence services stated that 45 Muslim Terrorists lived freely and openly in the city, from where they actively supported al Qaeda. High evidence thresholds under the German legal system have made it very difficult for authorities to make arrests.  In addition to those actively supporting al Qaeda. another 200 Islamists living in the city are described as having “violent tendencies.”

German intelligence officials say that like many European cities, Hamburg faces a challenge from Islamist extremists, but that some cities, like London, have even bigger problems. They say they are increasing resources to confront the problem of Muslim extremism. They say that radicalization is on the rise because of the growth of German-language extremist websites and the revolution in social media.

A senior German counter-terrorism source said that some 200 individuals have left the country since 9/11 to receive training with militant groups in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, and that dozens have returned. According to German intelligence officials, the increase in U.S. drone strikes in the tribal areas of Pakistan has not staunched the enthusiasm of German Muslims wishing to travel there.

Meanwhile, in New York City, United States of America…

From the New York Times:

Visitors to the upper floors of the Muslim community center planned for near (NYT’s word) ground zero would walk through lofty spaces — for art exhibitions, for contemplation and prayer, for programs on interreligious dialogue, for a 9/11 memorial — as sunlight streams through irregularly shaped windows between white crisscrossing beams.

The planners have not begun to raise the $140 million needed for construction or hired an architect.

An image of the façade has been in circulation since early this year, but last week the planners revealed renderings of how some interior spaces might look and how the center’s many amenities — including a restaurant, theater, day care center, gym and pool — might be stacked in a building of up to 15 stories.

There would also be a 9/11 memorial and a space open to people of “all faiths and of no faith” for prayer, contemplation and meditation, Mr. Gamal said.

The space for Muslims would be in the basement. Technically, it would be a prayer hall known as a musalla, because its construction would not meet rules required to sanctify a mosque.

Muslims who worship in a musalla often refer to it as a mosque or masjid.

On February 27th,2007, speaking to Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times, in an interview since deleted from their archives, Barack Hussein Obama said the Muslim call to prayer is “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.”

In fact, Obama recited the Muslim call to prayer, the Adhan, “with a first-class [Arabic] accent.”
The opening lines of the Adhan (Azaan) is the Shahada:

“Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme!
Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme!
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that Muhammad is his prophet? ”

According to Islamic scholars, reciting the Shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith, makes one a Muslim. This statement expresses a Muslim’s complete acceptance of, and total commitment to, the message of Islam. Obama chanted it with pride and finesse. 

And yet, this “Christian” falsely attributed a Biblical quote about “being his Brother’s Keeper” as spoken by Jesus Christ, when, in fact, it was spoken by Cain, the son of Adam, to God in Genesis 4:9:

Am I my brother’s keeper?

But, I digress.  If the Cordova Intiative/Park51/whatever they are calling themselves today comes up with the money to build the Ground Zero Mosque, the sounds of the Muslim Call to Prayer will be echoing, several times a day,  from the site of the worst Terrorist attack ever on U.S. soil, which killed 3,000 men, women, and children, that happened to be perpetrated by those who claimed to be devout Muslims.

Personally, I would rather hear this:

 

One Nation March: Epic Fail

On By kingsjesterIn Politics7 Comments

More than 400 progressive and civil rights groups gathered Saturday on the Lincoln Memorial in support of jobs, education and justice, in a poor, astroturfed attempt at imitating  the Tea Party movement.  An astroturfed event is one which is organized by the powers-that-be, is a desperate attempt to make it seem like a groundswell movement. 

Organizers, including the NAACP, La Raza and Code Pink, labelled it the most diverse march in history as they tried to rally their base around Democrats desperately trying  to keep their phony baloney jobs on Capitol Hill.

The Maytag Repairman of cable news, MSNBC host Ed Schultz, (nobody wants him around, either) said:

We are together. This march is about the power to the people.  It is about the people standing up to the corporations. Are you ready to fight back?

So says the guy who works for one of the largest corporations in the world, General Electric.

In a bombastic speech that opened the “One Nation Working Together” rally on the National Mall, Schultz blamed those wascally Wepublicans for shipping jobs overseas and curtailing freedoms. He borrowed lines from conservative Fox News host Glenn Beck and Conservative Americans everywhere and vowed to “take back our country.”

The Far Left/Progressives are a small minority in America.  It ain’t your country, Skippy. 

Schultz told the bussed-in crowd of thousands, who at times seemed like they would rather be at home on the couch with Pookie:

This is a defining moment in America. Are you American?  This is no time to back down. This is time to fight for America.

It’s pretty sad if you have to ask, Ed.

Young singers perform on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial as liberal activists gather in the nation's capital to participate in the "One Nation Working Together" rally to promote job creation, diversity and tolerance, Saturday, Oct. 2, 2010, in Washington. (AP)

Young singers perform on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial as liberal activists gather in the nation’s capital to participate in the “One Nation Working Together” rally to promote job creation, diversity and tolerance, Saturday, Oct. 2, 2010, in Washington. (AP)

Does this picture scare you and remind you of a political ideology, or is it just me?

The NAACP’s Jamie Branch claimed that the march is not an alternative to the Tea Party but an antidote:

We’re all working for the same purpose, the same mission.  Everybody wants jobs. Everybody wants health care. It’s just a way of going about doing things and if we all come together like all these people are, it will benefit everybody.

No, ma’am.   Everybody wants Freedom.  You can keep your nanny-state government.  Americans want no part of it. 

With a month to go before a political re-enactment of Custer’s Last Stand , the Far-Left organizers of yesterday’s event hoped that the four-hour program of speeches and entertainment would energize activists who are crucial if Democrats are to retain their majorities in the House and Senate. The national mood is definately against Obama, the Progressives, and their policies, and if Republicans don’t blow it, they will ride voter anger to gain control of the House and possibly the Senate.

As a casual observer, it appeared to me that most of the crowd had that “forced to be here” look and were more interested in talking to each other than in paying attention to the speakers.

Organizers insisted that this rally was not partisan.

You lie!  Heh.

Organizers said Saturday their message is about job creation, quality education and (social) justice.  

I am sure that it is just a coincidence that the largest organizations, such as the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union, always back Democratic candidates.

The speeches were hardly bi-partisan.

Schultz warned participants of Republicans:

They want to change this country.

More than 400 organizations, ranging from labor unions to faith, environmental and gay rights groups, co-ordinated the astroturfed event, which comes one month after Beck packed the same space with conservatives and tea party-style activists.

Beck and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin gathered near the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech to urge a vast crowd to embrace traditional values.  The theme of the Rally was Restoring Honor.  It emphasized a return to America’s religious roots and honored Americans, including our military, who have made a difference .

One Nation organizers claimed that they began planning their event before learning about Beck’s rally, and said Saturday’s march is not in reaction to that.

Bwahahahahaha…I can’t breathe…hahahahahahahahaha…Sorry.

Obama didn’t make it.  He was spending the weekend at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland.

I guess that was more important than energizing his Far-Left Base.

Allow me to summarize: 

 On 8/28, you had up to 750,000 Americans at an event of their own free will, praising their Creator and proud to be Americans.  They stayed there for the day-long event, enraptured by the powerful speakers and the beautiful music, including a stirring version of “Amazing Grace”, played on the bag pipes.  When the crowd left, they cleaned up after themselves, as if they had never been there.

On 10/2, you had a crowd of around 80,000, bussed-in, provided box lunches, and possibly paid union wages for their time.  Strident speakers attempted to convince the disinterested crowd that their publically-funded special interest group was more important than the previous speaker’s.  Lame musicians were backed up by a record-scratching DJ who would have seemed more appropriate at a Washington nightspot.  When they left, half of them leaving before the event was over, the sacred grounds of the Lincoln Memorial looked like a carnival had been there and the carnival gypsies pulled out in a hurry, with the law chasing them.

That’s the exact way that a lot of Democrat Candidates’ Campaign Headquarters will look like late in the evening of November 2nd.

Like a storm hit it.

The Invisible Interim: Pete Rouse

On By kingsjesterIn Uncategorized2 Comments

Pete Rouse, a 64-year-old single man, whose children are his cats, is strictly a behind-the-scenes player.  He rarely talks to reporters, and never on the record.  In most White House photographs,all you see is his backside.  Washington Insiders are already calling him the “Anti-Rahm”.

Suddenly, he is in the spotlight as the Interim White House chief of staff. Rouse will hold the job at least through the Nov. 2 elections, and perhaps until the end of the year, until the president decides on a permanent replacement.  I still believe it will be Scooter’s BFF, Valerie Jarrett.

Rouse is extremely methodical, and administration sources say he will give the president’s staff more structure than it has had under the fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants Rahmbo.  For example, Emanuel wanted to hire a female CEO to succeed Larry Summers, the president’s departing economic adviser.  In contrast, Rouse will “run a process,” according to a colleague, assessing what kind of person and skills are needed before making a recommendation to Obama.

Rouse received a B.A. from Colby College, an M.A. from the London School of Economics, and an M.P.A. from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government

Rouse has often been called “the 101st Senator,” possessing over 30 years of Capitol Hill experience.  He served as Tom Daschle’s powerful chief of staff. When Daschle got booted from the Senate by the voters, he hoped Rouse would work with him in the private sector.  But Rouse received an expected call from Cassandra Butts, the policy director on Dick Gephardt’s 2004 presidential campaign and an old law school chum of Obama’s. Butts asked Rouse to meet with the newly elected Obama. Not really wanting to, Rouse had lunch with the young senator. Obama asked him to sign on as his chief of staff,a demotion of sorts, dropping Rouse from the office of the most powerful Senate Democrat to that of the most junior member of the body.  Rouse politely declined.  Obama, in his usual unrelenting way, kept asking.  Eventually, Rouse accepted.

This was not an unusual move.  Most outsider candidates for the presidency recruit an outsider team to make their dream happen.  Bill Clinton’s go-to guys in 1992 were the little-known pit bulls Paul Begala and James Carville.  His first chief of staff was Mack McLarty, a childhood friend who had risen to become chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party. It was a team untainted by Washington but also naive in knowing how Washington worked.

But Scooter’s campaign and Senate staff, by contrast, were full of Daschle and Gephardt veterans, and the staff’s were unexpectedly driven by the power bases and reputations of two politicians who had long been thrown on the trash heap . Obama’s chief of staff was Pete Rouse. His deputy campaign manager, Steve Hildebrand, managed Daschle’s 2004 campaign. His director for battleground states, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, and his director of communications, Dan Pfeiffer,both worked as deputy campaign managers for Daschle in 2004. Obama’s foreign-policy director, Denis McDonough, was Daschle’s foreign-policy adviser, and his finance director, Julianna Smoot, was head of Daschle’s PAC. Many of those who didn’t come from the Senate minority leader’s office came from the House minority leader’s office. Obama’s campaign manager and now WH Insider, David Plouffe, was Gephardt’s deputy campaign manager in 2004. His head of delegate operations, Jeff Berman, played the same role for Gephardt. His national press secretary, Bill Burton, was Gephardt’s Iowa press secretary. Dozens of others come from related arms of the party, in particular the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

During the months between Barack Hussein Obama’s (peace be unto him) election and his ascension to the Throne, Pete Rouse was known as the transition team’s “keeper of the list”:   the list of who was supposed to get jobs and who was owed favors.

It was a surprisingly effective operation for a first-term senator who hadn’t worked a day in Washington before 2004.  But it’s exactly the team you’d expect a former chief of staff to the Senate minority leader to put together.

According to Tom Daschle:

The person most responsible for this was Pete Rouse.

It turns out that Obama’s presidential campaign was in part based on plans Rouse had prepared for Daschle in 2004, before Daschle decided to sit out the presidential race. 

There were only two Democratic power centers capable of running a national campaign in 2008: the veterans of the Clinton campaign, and the staff around the congressional leadership. Since the Clinton staffers were helping Hillary, Scooter grabbed those Washington Insiders that were left behind when both Tom Daschle and Dick Gephardt left office, and then he had the good fortune to land Rouse, who knew how to work with all those staffers.

This gave Obama’s campaign, and, eventually, his White House, a congressional character.  Rahm Emanuel came aboard, out of the House leadership, and legislative liaison Phil Schiliro, who is one of the leading candidates to replace Emanuel if the Rouse pick proves temporary, was taken from Rep. Henry Waxman’s office.

The Obama administration has caught a lot of heat for adopting an snotty approach to dealing with Congress, but it’s staffed by longtime congressional hands who strongly believe that you have to be snotty with Congress if you actually want to get anything done in it.   With Rouse taking over as Interim Chief of Staff, the way that Obama and his Administration deals with Congress is not going to change .

 

Obama: Politics = Slavery…or Sumpin’

On By kingsjesterIn Politics8 Comments

Desperate to recapture the lightning in a bottle that propelled an unknown cipher to the White House, President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) held a “yute” rally Thursday night, where the hand-picked crowd tried to shout down any talk of an “enthusiasm gap” among Democrats.

Obama led a pep rally/rap concert attended by 3,000 at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at DAR Constitution Hall.

Thursday’s event was organized for the DNC’s Gen44 group, which attempts to cultivate (i.e., indoctrinate) young leaders. It was expected to raise $750,000.

Beforehand, Obama spoke at a small fundraising dinner at the home of John Phillips and Linda Douglass, where guests paid $30,400 each to raise $1 million for the Democratic Party. Citing his big rally in Madison, Obama told the group that Democrats are “waking up.”

When he got to the “yute” rally, Scooter spoke to the  young minds full of mush, and said:

I’m back here today just in case you’ve forgotten what it feels like to change the country.  It was always going to be hard. Now is not the time to quit.

The DNC, in their infinite wisdom,  had enlisted hip hop artist B.o.B to perform, and the crowd also heard from Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, David Plouffe, now set to be a White house “Insider” upon the departure of Rahmbo, on the importance of the youth vote to the November midterm elections, which are scheduled to be Political Massacre for the Democrats.

Never heard of B.o.B before?  Me, neither.  However, I did manage to get a hold of the words to the dignified little ditty that they sang for the President last night.  Why, it’s positively Shakespearean in nature:

Im that n**** that you heard about thru word of mouth,
they prolly said i change the music in the dirty south,
now that the word is out,
the timing is perfect now,
to take all these hypicritical rumors and burn em down.
if you observe the doubt you would see what they worried bout,
they say i sound like dre when im rappin bout virgins now,
honestly, i could give a f— wut you blurtin out.
point blank, im in the game..rockin my jerseys now.
so just accept me or dont pay me no mind,
either way you gonna be hearin me all the time,
wether on greg street, or 107.9,
or on yo favorite rap blog, on yo rap website,
and if that aint right, then show me straight to the judge.
just like bryan nichols i aint spittin, nuthin but slugs,
venomous blood in my vains,
chemicals up in my brain,
yes i resemble a criminal,
B.o. Bizzle, you aint f—’n wit mane!

[Whatever happened to “Hail to the Chief”?]

Inspired by the classy spirit of the evening, Obama spoke without a teleprompter again, and showed just how post-racial he truly is:

As at a massive rally earlier in the week in Madison, Wis., Obama accomplished the illusion of recapturing, at least for a few moments, some of the political magic of his 2008 presidential campaign. When he spoke of the “pundits” who were decreeing an “enthusiasm gap” the Liberal Collegiate crowd yelled uproariously, apparently wanting to prove there wasn’t one.  Or maybe it was just the Free Rock Concert at that event.

Scooter said at that event:

I need you to be fired up, I need you to stay fired up, all the way to Nov. 2. … Because Nov. 2 is going to say a lot about your future.

Even if Obama and Democrats go dig up and re-animate John Lennon, George Harrison, and Marvin Gaye, they will not be able  to create the excitement they need to avoid the re-enactment of Custer’s Last Stand on November 2nd, 2010. The president met with Democratic congressional leaders at the White House earlier Thursday to feverishly try to figure out a strategy to keep their political power.  With one month to go, panic has definitely set in.

As I close, I wish to share something with you.  Something about this week’s festivities nagged at me.  Why has Obama always gone after America’s young people through events like this and his satellite-delivered speech at the beginning of each school year?  Perhaps, it has something to do with this quote from somebody I am positive that Obama is familiar with:

Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted. – Vladimir Illyich Lenin

Congresschickens Fly the Coop

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments
In an example of self-serving cowardice unseen since the tale of Chicken Little, Congress fled Washington last night, leaving behind a trail of stalled bills, including a major fight over taxes, two embarrassing ethics cases and its most basic job – approving a budget for the government year that begins on Friday.

One foot out the door, the House and Senate stopped in their flight  just long enough to vote on a “continuing resolution,” a stopgap measure to keep the government in operating funds for the next two months and avoid a pre-election federal shutdown.

The Senate late Wednesday approved the temporary spending bill 69-30. The House joined in several hours later with a 228-194 vote, sending it to Obama’s desk to be signed into law.  They abdicated their responsibility to the American people in order to hit the campaign trail for midterm elections that will determine whether Democrats hold onto power.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi summed up their electoral panic quite nicely:

Whatever the Senate passes – they’ll send it over and we’ll pass it.

As they go out among the American people, trying to prevent the Political Massacre scheduled for November 2nd, Congresschickens are facing more than four weeks of defending unpopular votes in favor of President Obama’s economic stimulus measure, health care law and uncompleted legislation for curbing global warming.

They also head home without passing what was supposed to be their closing argument of the campaign, an extension of Bush-era tax cuts for families making less than $250,000.

Republicans and dozens of Democrats urged Congress to preserve the tax cuts for all Americans, even the wealthiest, in order to try to being to turn around Obama’s economic policy failure.  However, those brave Democratic leaders opted to avoid the risk of being branded tax hikers and punted the matter until after the elections.

House Minority Leader John Boehner began to guide the chickens’ heads toward the chopping blocks:.

If Democratic leaders leave town without stopping all of the tax hikes, they are turning their backs on the American people.

The Head Hen, San Fran Nan Pelosi,  has vowed that the middle class tax cuts will be passed this year.

Republicans also nailed Democrats for putting off  the embarrassing ethics trials of Reps. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and Maxine Waters, D-Calif., until after the Midterms. Both of the accused Congresschickens had said they wanted trials as soon as possible.

Before Republicans take control of Congress and they get fried in committee.

House leaders also ignored a vote on a Senate-passed school nutrition bill favored by first lady (and world traveller) Michelle Obama. The bill is opposed by liberals because it would cut food stamp benefits to find the money to pay for better school lunches. The Senate passed the $4.5 billion legislation in August, and many of the child nutrition programs it includes were set to expire on Thursday, the last day of the fiscal year.  The democrats will not face Michelle’s wrath now, thanks to passing the stopgap measure.

In the waning hours before adjournment, Democrats moved what smaller legislation they could.

The House was advancing to Obama’s desk a bill setting NASA policy and legislation aimed at strengthening congressional oversight of sensitive spy operations. But a House measure to provide free health care and additional compensation to World Trade Center workers sickened in the towers’ crumbled ruins was sure to stall in the Senate.

The stopgap spending measure was stripped of a host of add-ons sought by the Obama administration, including money for “Race to the Top” grants to better-performing schools and more than $4 billion to finance settlements of long-standing lawsuits by black farmers and American Indians against the government.

Negotiations continued, however, on a separate bill to provide $1.2 billion to remedy discrimination by the Agriculture Department against black farmers and $3.4 billion to settle claims that the Interior Department mismanaged Indian trust funds. Prospects were being helped by the addition of several measures — favored by western Republicans — to resolve Indian water claims.  Tom Coburn of Oklahoma was holding the line for the Republicans in this matter.

The stopgap bill is a reminder of the dismal performance by Congress in doing its most basic job — passing an annual budget and the spending bills for agency operations.

Only two of a dozen annual appropriations bills have passed the House this year and none has passed the Senate as Democratic leaders have opted against lengthy floor debates and politically difficult votes on spending.

The breakdown in the budget process includes a senator from Obama’s own party holding up the confirmation of a director to head the White House budget office, a critical post. Mary Landrieu, D-La., is blocking the nomination until the administration lifts or significantly modifies a Gulf oil well moratorium imposed after the BP spill.

The end-of session agenda included:

— A legislative blueprint for NASA’s future that would extend the life of the space shuttle program for a year while backing Obama’s intent to use commercial carriers to carry humans into space. Obama will sign the measure.

— The first intelligence authorization bill since 2004, with compromise language on demands by Congress for greater access to top-secret intelligence. The most secret briefings will still only be provided to top congressional leaders, but members of the intelligence panels will receive a general description of the programs. The House was clearing the measure for Obama.

The aforementioned child nutrition bill ran into trouble after House supporters abandoned their own $8 billion version and proposed passing the Senate version, which would be partially paid for by using future funding for food stamp programs. The bill now faces opposition from hunger groups, and some Democrats have said they will not support it if the food stamp money is used.

As we head into the home stretch, before the Midterm Elections, expect the campaign rhetoric of the Progressives to be very reminiscent of Chicken Little’s:

THE SKY IS FALLING! AND ONLY MASSIVE FEDERAL GOVERNMENTAL PROGRAMS DESIGNED BY OUR SUPERIOR INTELLIGENCE CAN SAVE YOUR LIVES!

Well, okay.  Chicken Little did not say all of that, but you get the idea.  Massive Government Programs are not what this nation needs to rebound from Obama and the Democrats’ failed economic policies.  Obama and his minions need to get out of our way and allow American initiative and work ethic to get us out of this horrible economic mess that their Progressive Policies have created.  Since, they refuse to do that, on November 2nd, Americans will begin to reclaim our country.